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COPYRIGHT DEPOSJT 



ONKS &f MONASTERIES 



A SHORT HISTORY OF 

MONKS 

AND MONASTERIES 



I i" ALFRED WESLEY WISHART 

.etJme Fellonv in Church History in The Uninjersity of Chicago 




lLBERT BRANDT: PUBLISHER 
Trenton, New Jersey MDCCCCII 



^%^ 



TJ<f: L!3t<ASY OF 
CONGKESS, 

CL^SSCV. XXfv No. 

oory B, 



COPYRIGHT, 1900, 1902 
BY ALBERT BRANDT 
ENTERED AT STATION- 
ERS' HALL, LONDON 



SECOND 
N O V E M B 



EDITION 
E R , 1902 



Printed at The Brandt Press, Trenton ^ N. J., U. S. A, 



PREFACE 

^T^HE AIM of this volume is to sketch the his- 
tory of the monastic institution from its 
origin to its overthrow in the Reformation period, 
for although the institution is by no means now- 
extinct, its power was practically broken in the 
sixteenth century, and no new orders of importance 
or new types have arisen since that time. 

A little reflection will enable one to understand 
the great difliculties in the execution of so broad 
^purpose. It was impracticable in the majority of 
instances to consult original sources, although inter- 
mediate authorities have been studied as widely as 
possible and the greatest caution has been exercised 
to avoid those errors which naturally arise from the 
use of such avenues of information. It was also 
deemed unadvisable to burden the work with 
numerous notes and citations. Such notes as were 
. necessary to a true unfolding of the subject will be 
found in the appendix. 

A presentation of the salient features of the 

5 



6 PREFACE 

whole history was essential to a proper conception 
of the orderly development of the ascetic ideal. 
To understand the monastic institution one must 
not only study the isolated anchorite seeking a 
victory over a sinful self in the Egyptian desert or 
the monk in the secluded cloister, but he must also 
trace the fortunes of ascetic organizations, involving 
multitudes of men, vast aggregations of wealth, and 
surviving the rise and fall of empires. Almost 
every phase of human life is encountered in such an 
undertaking. Attention is divided between hermits, 
beggars, diplomatists, statesmen, professors, mis- 
sionaries and pontiffs. It is hoped the critical or 
literary student will appreciate the immense diffi- 
culties of an attempt to paint so vast a scene on so 
small a canvas. No other claim is made upon his 
benevolence. 

There is a process of writing history which 
Trench describes as "a moral whitewashing of such 
things as in men's sight were as blackamoors 
before." Religious or temperamental prejudice 
often obscures the vision and warps the judgment 
of even the most scholarly minds. Conscious of 
this infirmity in the ablest writers of history it 



PREFACE 7 

aid be absurd to claim complete exemption from 
'. power of personal bias. It is sincerely hoped, 
however, that the strongest passion in the prep- 
aration of this work has been that commendable 
predilection for truth and justice which should 
characterize every historical narrative, and that, 
whatever other shortcomings may be found herein, 
there is an absence of that unreasonable suspicion, 
not to say hatred, of everything monastic, which 
mars many otherwise valuable contributions to 
monastic history. 

The author's grateful acknowledgment is made, 
for kindly services and critical suggestions, to Eri 
Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., Dean of the 
Divinity School, and Professor and Head of the 
Department of Church History; Franklin John- 
son, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Church History 
and Homiletics ; Benjamin S. Terry, Ph.D., Pro- 
fessor of Medieval and English History ; and 
Ralph C. H. Catterall, Instructor in Modern 
History ; all of The University of Chicago. Also 
to James M. Whiton, Ph.D., of the Editorial 
Staff of "The Outlook*'; Ephraim Emerton, 
Ph.D., Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 



8 PREFACE 

Harvard University; S. Giffard Nelson, L.H.D., 

of Brooklyn, New York; A. H. Newman, D.D., 

LL.D., Professor of Church History in McMaster 

University of Toronto, Ontario ; and Paul van 

Dyke, D.D., Professor of History in Princeton 

University. 

A. W. W. 
Trenton, March, 1900. 



Note to the Second Edition 

This new edition of " Monks and Monasteries " 
appears in response to the popular demand for a 
less expensive volume. Its publication afforded 
an opportunity for the addition, in the appendix, 
of a note dealing with the friars in the Philippine 
Islands. Monasticism in our insular possessions 
furnishes a striking illustration of those few sur- 
vivals of the Medieval Ages which have remained 
to give battle to the forces of civilization in the 

twentieth century. 

A. w. w. 

Trenton, November, 1902. 



1 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface, 5 

Bibliography, 12 

I 

MONASTICISM IN THE EaST, 1 7 

The Hermits of Egypt, 33 

The Pillar Saint, 51 

The Cenobites of the East, . . . . . 57 

II 

MONASTICISM IN THE WeST : AnTE-BeNEDICTINE MoNKS, 

340-480 A. D., ....,,. 71 

Monasticism and Women, . . . . . . 106 

^JThe Spread of Monasticism in Europe, . . . 115 

Disorders and Oppositions, . . . . . , 124 

III 

♦The Benedictines, 131 

The Rules of Benedict, ...... 138 

The Struggle Against Barbarism, . , . , 148 

The Spread of the Benedictine Rule, .... 158 

IV 

• Reformed and Military Orders, .... 173 

The Military Religious Orders, . . . , . 197 

i ^ 

/ J The Mendicant Friars, 205 

Francis Bernardone, 11 82— 1226 A, D., . , , 208 

The Franciscan Orders, ...... 226 

9 



lO 



CONTENTS 



The Mendicant Friars — [Continued). 

Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221 A. D., 
> The Dominican Orders, 
The Success of the Mendicant Orders, 
The Decline of the Mendicants, 



VI 



The Society of Jesus, . . . . 
Ignatius de Loyola, 1 491-1556 A. D., 
Constitution and Polity of the Order, 
The Vow of Obedience, 
The Casuistry of the Jesuits, 
The Mission of the Jesuits, 
Retrospect, .... 



Page 
230 
241' 
242 



258 
261 
265 
166 

272 
276 
284 



VII 

The Fall of the Monasteries, ..... 286 

The Character of Henry VIII., ..... 290 

Events Preceding the Suppression, . . . . 293 

The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy, . . . 301 
The Royal Commissioners and their Methods of Investi- 
gation, ......... 308 

The Report of the Commissioners, . . . . 316 

The Action of Parliament, . . . . . 319 

The Effect of the Suppression Upon the People, . . 322 

Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues, . . . 328 

Was the Suppression Justifiable ? . . . . 331 

Results of the Dissolution, . . . . . 347 

VIII 

Causes and Ideals of Monasticism, . . . . 354 

Causative Motives of Monasticism, . . . . 355 

Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives, . . . 365 

Causes of Variations in Monasticism, . . . . 371 

The Fundamental Monastic Vows, . . . . 375 



CONTENTS 



II 



IX 

The Effects of Monasticism, . . . . 

The Effects of Self-Sacrifice Upon the Individual, 

The Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual, 

The Monks as Missionaries, 

Monasticism and Civic Duties, 

The Agricultural Services of the Monks, 

The Monks and Secular Learning, 

The Charity of the Monks, 

Monasticism and Religion, 

Appendix, 

Index, ...... 



Page 

3S6 
390 

193 
398 
399 
403 
405 
410 
412 
425 
441 



/ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Adams, G. B. : Civilization During the Middle Ages. 

Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, Charles L.: The Crusaders. 

Barrows, John H., (Editor): The World's Parliament of Religions. 

Blunt, I. J. : Sketches of the Reformation in England. 

Blunt, John Henry : The Reformation of the Church of England, 
Its History, Principles and Results. 

Brewer, John Sherren : The Reign of Henry VHI. 

Bryce, James : The Holy Roman Empire. 

Burnet, Gilbert : History of the Reformation of the Church of 
England. 

Butler, Alban : Lives of the Saints. 

Carlyle, Thomas : Past and Present : The Ancient Monk. Mis- 
cellaneous Papers : Jesuitism. 

Cazenove, John G. : St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of Tours. 

Chalippe, Candide : The Life of St. Francis of Asslsi. 

Child, Gilbert W. : Church and State Under the Tudors. 

Church, R. W. : The Beginning of the Middle Ages. 

Clark, William : The Anglican Reformation. 

Clarke, Stephen Reynolds : Vestigia Anglicana. 

Clarke, James Freeman : Events and Epochs in Religious History. 

Cook, Keningale : The Fathers of Jesus. 

Cox, G. W. : The Crusaders. 

Cutts, Edward Lewes : St. Jerome and St. Augustine. 

Dill, Samuel : Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western 
Empire. 

Draper, John William : History of the Intellectual Development 
of Europe. 

Drane, Augusta T. : The History of St. Dominic. 

Dugdale, Sir William : Monasticum Angllcanum. 

12 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 13 

DuRUY, Victor : History of Rome. 

EcKENSTEiN, LiNA : Woman Under Monasticism. 

Edersheim, Alfred : The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. 

Eliot, Samuel : History of Liberty. 

Farrar, Frederick W. : The Early Days of Christianity. 

FosBROKE, J. D. : British Monachism. 

Froude, James Anthony : History of England. 

Froude, James Anthony : Short Studies. 

Gairdner, James, and Spedding, James : Studies in English History. 

Gasquet, Francis A. : Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries. 

Gasquet, Francis A. : The Eve of the Reformation. 

Gibbon, Edward : Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 

Gieseler, J. K. L. : Manual of Church History. 

Gneist, Rudolph: History of the English Constitution. 

Gneist, Rudolph : The English Parliament. 

Green, John Richard: History of the English People. 

Gueranger, Prosper : Life of St. Cecilia. 

Guizot, F. p. G. : The History of France. 

GuizoT, F. P. G. : The History of Civilization in Europe. 

Hallam, Henry: Europe During the Middle Ages. 

Hallam, Henry : Constitutional History of England. 

Hallam, Henry : Introduction to the Literature of Europe. 

Hardy, R. Spencer : Eastern Monasticism. 

Hardwick, Charles : History of the Christian Church in the Mid- 
dle Ages. 

Harnack, Adolf : Monasticism : Its Ideals and Its History : Christ- 
ian Literature Magazine y 1894-95. 

Hill, O'Dell T. : English Monasticism : Its Rise and Influence. 

Hughes, T. : Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits. 

Hume, David : The History of England. 

Jameson, Anna : Legends of the Monastic Orders. 

Jessopp, Augustus : The Coming of the Friars. 

KiNGSLEY, Charles : The Hermits. 

Kingsley, Charles : Hypatla. 

KiNGSLEY, Charles : The Roman and the Teuton. 



14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lappenberg, J. M. : A History of England Under the Anglo- 
Saxon Kings. 

Larned, J. N. : History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading. 

Lea, Henry C. : History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. 

Lea, Henry C. : Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church. 

Lecky, William E. H. : History of Rationalism in Europe. 

Lecky, William E. H. : History of European Morals. 

Lee, F. G. : The Life of Cardinal Pole. 

LiNGARD, John : History of England. 

LiNGARD, John : History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church. 

Lord, John : Beacon-Lights of History. 

Lord, John : The Old Roman World. 

Ludlow, James M. : The Age of the Crusades. 

Mackintosh, James : History of England. 

Maitland, Samuel R. : The Dark Ages. 

Maitland, Samuel R. : Essays on the Reformation. 

Mathews, Shailer : Social Teachings of Jesus. 

MiLMAN, Henry H. : The History of Latin Christianity. 

MiLMAN, Henry H. : The History of Christianity. 

Montalembert, C. F. R. : Monks of the West. 

MosHiEM, J. L. VON : Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. 

Neander, Augustus : General History of the Christian Religion 
and Church. 

Oliphant, Mary O. W. : Life of St. Francis of Assisi. 

Parkman, Francis : The Jesuits in North America in the Seven- 
teenth Century. 

Pike, Luke Owen : A History of Crime in England. 

Putnam, G. H. : Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages. 

Reade, Charles : The Cloister and the Hearth. 

RuFFNER, H. : The Fathers of the Desert. 

Sabatier, Paul : Life of St. Francis of Assisi. 

Schaff, Philip : History of the Christian Church. 

ScHAFF, Philip, and Wace, Henry, (Editors) : The Nicene and 
Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. (Lives and 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 15 

writings of Jerome, Athanasius, Cassian, St. Martin of Tours, 
and other early supporters of the monastic movement). 
Scott, Walter : The Monastery. 
Scott, Walter : The Abbot. 
SiENKiEWicz, Henry«: The Knights of the Cross. 
5MITH, Philip: Student's Ecclesiastical History. 
jmith, R. F. : St. Basil. 

Stanley, Arthur P. : History of the Eastern Church. 
:)TILLE, Charles J. : Studies in Medieval History. 
Storrs, Richard S. : Bernard of Clairvaux. 
Itrype, J. : Annals of the Reformation. 

iTUBBS, William : Lectures on the Study of Medieval History. 
Taunton, Ethelred L. : The English Black Monks of St. 

Benedict. 
"hompson, R. W. : The Footprints of the Jesuits. 
"hurston, H. : The Life of St. Hugh of Lincoln. 
"raill, H. D. : Social England. 

'rench, Richard C. : Lectures on Medieval Church History. 
"revelyan, George M. : England in the Age of Wycliffe. 
T aughan, Robert: Revolutions in English History. 
AUGHAN, Robert : Hours with the Mystics. 
/addington, George : History of the Church. 
/"aterman, Lucius : The Post-Apostolic Age. 
/"kite, a. D. : A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology. 
Vhite, James : The Eighteen Christian Centuries. 
^OODHOUSE, Frederick C. : The Military Religious Orders of 

the Middle Ages. 
>JCYCLOP^DiAS : McClintock and Strong, SchafF-Herzog, Brit- 
tanica, English, and Johnson. (Articles on ** Monasticism," 
"Benedict," "Francis," ** Dominic," "Loyola," etc.) 

Many other authorities were consulted by the author, but only 
those works that are easily accessible and likely to prove of direct value 
to the student are cited above. 



p 



M 


O 


N 


K 


S 


AND 


MONASTERIES 



MONASriCISM IN THE EAST 

THE MONK is a type of religious 
character by no means peculiar to 
Christianity. Every great religion in 
ancient and modern times has expressed 
itself in some form of monastic life. 

The origin of the institution is lost in antiquity. 
Its genesis and gradual progress through the cen- 
turies are like the movement of a mighty river 
springing from obscure sources, but gathering 
volume by the contributions of a multitude of 
springs, brooks, and lesser rivers, entering the main 
stream at various stages in its progress. Whi>le 
the mysterious source of the monastic stream may 

not be found, it is easy to discover many different 

1 17 



i8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

influences and causes that tended to keep the 
mighty current flowing majestically on. It is not 
so easy to determine which of these forces was the 
greatest. 

" Monasticism," says SchafF, "proceeds from 
religious seriousness, enthusiasm and ambition ; 
from a sense of the vanity of the world, and an 
inclination of noble souls toward solitude, contem- 
plation, and freedom from the bonds of the flesh 
and the temptations of the world." A strong 
ascetic tendency in human nature, particularl) 
active in the Orient, undoubtedly explains in i 
general way the origin and growth of the institu- 
tion. Various forms of philosophy and religiou; 
belief fostered this monastic inclination fron 
time to time by imparting fresh impetus tc 
the desire for soul-purity or by deepening th( 
sense of disgust with the world. 

India is thought by some to have been the birth- 
place of the institution. In the sacred writings oi 
the venerable Hindus, portions of which have beer 
dated as far back as 2400 B. C, there are numer- 
ous legends about holy monks and many asceti< 
rules. Although based on opposite philosophica 



MONASTIC ISM in the EAST 19 

)rinciples, the earlier Brahminism and the later 
ystem, Buddhism, each tended toward ascetic 
)ractices, and they each boast to-day of long 
ines of monks and nuns. 

The Hindoo (Brahmin) ascetic, or naked philos- 
)pher, as the Greeks called him, exhausted his 
magination in devising schemes of self-torture. 
Be buried himself with his nose just above the 
ground, or wore an iron collar, or suspended 
veights from his body. He clenched his fists until 
:he nails grew into his palms, or kept his head 
:urned in one direction until he was unable to turn 
:t back. He was a miracle-worker, an oracle of 
ivisdom, and an honored saint. He was bold, 
spiritually proud, capable of almost superhuman 
endurance. We will meet him again in the person 
3f his Christian descendant on the banks of the 
Nile. 

The Buddhist ascetic was, perhaps, less severe 
A^ith himself, but the general spirit and form of 
the institution was, and is, the same as among the 
Brahmins. In each religion we observe the same 
selfish individualism, — a desire to save one's own 
soul by slavish obedience to ascetic rules, — the 



20 MONKS and MONASTERIES! 

j 
extinction of natural desires by self-punishmet 

*'A Brahmin who wishes to become an ascetic 

says Clarke, "must abandon his home and famii 

and go live in the forest. His food must i^ 

roots and fruit, his clothing a bark garment oi 

skin, he must bathe morning and evening, aii 

suffer his hair to grow." 

The fact to be remembered, however, is that 
India, centuries before the Christian Era, the: 
existed both phases of Christian monasticism, t 
hermit* and the crowded convent. 

Dhaquit, a Chaldean ascetic, who is said to ha 
lived about 2000 B. C, is reported to have ear 
estly rebuked those who tried to preserve the bo(' 
from decay by artificial resources. " Not by na 
ural means," he said, " can man preserve his bod 
from corruption and dissolution after death, b 
only through good deeds, religious exercises at 
offering of sacrifices, — by invoking the gods 1 
their great and beautiful names, by prayers du 
ing the night, and fasts during the day." 

When Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary 
first saw the Chinese bonzes, tonsured and usir; 

■^Appendix, Note A. 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 21 

their rosaries, he cried out, " There is not a single 
article of dress, or a sacerdotal function, or a single 
ceremony of the Romish church, which the Devil 
has not imitated in this country." I have not 
the courage to follow this streamlet back into the 
devil's heart. The attempt would be too daring. 
Who invented shaved heads and monkish gowns 
and habits, we cannot tell, but this we know: 
long before Father Bury saw and described those 
things in China, there existed in India the Grand 
Lama or head monk, with monasteries under him, 
filled with monks who kept the three vows of 
chastity, poverty and obedience. They had their 
routine of prayers, of fasts and of labors, like the 
Christian monks of the middle ages. 

Among the Greeks there were many philoso- 
phers who taught ascetic principles. Pythagoras, 
born about 580 B. C, established a religious 
brotherhood in which he sought to realize a high 
ideal of friendship. His whole plan singularly 
suggests monasticism. His rules provided for a 
rigid self-examination and unquestioning submis- 
sion to a master. Many authorities claim that the 
influence of the Pythagorean philosophy was 



22 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

strongly felt in Egypt and Palestine, after the 
time of Christ. " Certain it is that more than 
two thousand years before Ignatius Loyola assem- 
bled the nucleus of his great society in his subter- 
ranean chapel in the city of Paris, there was 
founded at Crotona, in Greece, an order of monks 
whose principles, constitution, aims, method and 
final end entitle them to be called ' The Pagan 
Jesuits/ " * 

The teachings of Plato, no doubt, had a pow- 
erful monastic influence, under certain social con- 
ditions, upon later thinkers and upon those who 
yearned for victory over the flesh. Plato s 
insisted on an ideal life in which higher pi 
are preferred to lower. Earthly thought^ 
ambitions are to yield before a holy comm 
with the Divine. Some of his views *' might 
like broken visions of the future, when we 
of the first disciples who had all things in com 
and, in later days, of the celibate clergy, anc 
cloisteral life of the religious orders." The ( 
of such a philosophy in times of general corru| 
upon those who wished to acquire exceptional n 
*Appendix, Note B. 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 23 

and intellectual power, and who felt unable to cope 
with the temptations of social life, may be easily 
imagined. It meant, in many cases, a retreat from 
the world to a life of meditation and soul-conflict. 
In later times it exercised a marked influence upon 
;tic literature. 

Coming closer to Christianity in time and in 

:hing, we find a Jewish sect, called Essenes, 

ng in the region of the Dead Sea, which bore 

larkable resemblances to Christian monasticism. 

e origin and development of this band, which 

nbered four thousand about the time of Christ, 

unknown. Even the derivation of the name is 

doubt, there being at least twenty proposed 

)lanations. The sect is described by Philo, an 

exandrian-Jewish philosopher, who was born 

)ut 25 B. C, and by Josephus, the Jewish 

torian, who was born at Jerusalem A. D. 37. 

These writers evidently took pains to secure the 

*' :ts, and from their accounts, upon which modern 

icussions of the subject are largely based, the 

lowing facts are gleaned. 

The Essenes were a sect outside the . Jewish 
clesiastical body, bound by strict vows and pro- 



24 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

fessing an extraordinary purity. While there were 
no vows of extreme penance, they avoided cities as 
centers of immorality, and, with some exceptions, 
eschewed marriage. They held aloof from traffic, 
oaths, slave-holding, and weapons of offence. 
They were strict Sabbath observers, wore a uniform 
robe, possessed all things in common, engaged in 
manual labor, abstained from forbidden food, and 
probably rejected the bloody sacrifices of the 
Temple, although continuing to send their thank- 
offerings. Novitiates were kept on probation 
three years. The strictest discipline was main- 
tained, excommunication following detection in 
heinous sins. Evidently the standard of character 
was pure and lofty, since their emphasis on self- 
mastery did not end in absurd extravagances. 
Their frugal food, simple habits, and love of clean- 
liness, combined with a regard for ethical prin- 
ciples, conduced to a high type of life. Edersheim 
remarks, "We can scarcely wonder that such Jews 
as Josephus and Philo, and such heathens as Pliny, 
were attracted by such an unworldly and lofty 
sect. 

Some writers maintain that they were also wor- 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 25 

shipers of the sun, and hence that their origin is 

to be traced to Persian sources. Even if so, they 

seemed to have escaped that confused and mystical 

philosophy which has robbed Oriental thought of 

much power in the realm of practical life. Philo 

says, " Of philosophy, the dialectical department, 

as being in no wise necessary for the acquisition of 

virtue, they abandon to the word-catchers ; and 

the part which treats of the nature of things, as 

being beyond human nature, they leave to specu- 

ve air-gazers, with the exception of that part of 

'hich deals with the subsistance of God and the 

esis of all things ; but the ethical they right 

[ work out." 

Miny the elder, who lived A. D, 23-79, made 

following reference to the Essenes, which is 

scially interesting because of the tone of sadness 

weariness with the world suggested in its praise 

this Jewish sect. "On the western shore (of 

Dead Sea) but distant from the sea far enough 

escape from its noxious breezes, dwelt the 

enes. They are an eremite clan, one marvelous 

ond all others in the whole world; without any 

> nen, with sexual intercourse entirely given up, 



26 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

without money, and the associates of palm trees. 
Daily is the throng of those that crowd about them 
renewed, men resorting to them in numbers, driven 
through weariness of existence, and the surges of 
ill-fortune, to their manner of life. Thus it is 
that through thousands of ages — incredible to 
relate ! — their society, in which no one is born, 
lives on perennial. So fruitful to them is the irk- 
someness of life experienced by other men." 

Admission to the order was granted only to 
adults, yet children were sometimes adopted for 
training in the principles of the sect. Some 
believed in marriage as a means of perpetuating 
the order. 

Since it would not throw light on our present 
inquiry, the mooted question as to the connection 
of Essenism and the teachings of Jesus may be 
passed by. The differences are as great as the 
resemblances and the weight of opinion is against 
any vital relation. 

The character of this sect conclusively shows that 
some of the elements of Christian monasticism 
existed in the time of Jesus, not only in Palestine 
but in other countries. In an account of the 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 27 

Therapeutae, or true devotees, an ascetic body simi- 
lar to the Essenes, Philo says, " There are many 
parts of the world in which this class may be 
found. . . . They are, however, in greatest 
abundance in Egypt." 

During Apostolic times various teachings and 

practices were current that may be characterized as 

ascetic. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the 

Colossians, doubtless had in mind a sect or school 

which despised the body and abstained from meats 

and wine. A false asceticism, gathering inspira- 

from pagan philosophy, was rapidly spreading 

ig Christians even at that early day. The 

ings of the Gnostics, a speculative sect of 

schools, became prominent in the closing 

' of the Apostolic age or very soon thereafter. 

r of these schools claimed a place in the 

h, and professed a higher life and knowledge 

ordinary Christians possessed. The Gnostics 

^ed in the complete subjugation of the body 

[Stere treatment. 

le Montanists, so called after Montanus, their 
us leader, arose in Asia Minor during the 
.d century, when Marcus Aurelius was em- 



28 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

peror. SchafF describes the movement as " a mor- 
bid exaggeration of Christian ideas and demands." 
It was a powerful and frantic protest against the 
growing laxity of the church. It despised orna- 
mental dress and prescribed numerous fasts and 
severities. 

These facts and many others that might be men- 
tioned throw light on our inquiry in several ways. 
They show that asceticism was in the air. The 
literature, philosophy and religion of the day 
drifted toward an ascetic scheme of life and stimu- 
lated the tendency to acquire holiness, even at the 
cost of innocent joys and natural gratifications. 
They show that worldliness was advancing in the 
church, which called for rebuke and a return to 
Apostolic Christianity ; that the church was failing 
to satisfy the highest cravings of the soul. True, 
it was well-nigh impossible for the church, in the 
midst of such a powerful and corrupt heathen 
environment, to keep itself up to its standards. 

It is a common tradition that in the first three 
centuries the practices and spirit of the church 
were comparatively pure and elevated. Harnack 
says, " This tradition is false. The church was 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 29 

already secularized to a great extent in the middle 
of the third century." She was " no longer in a 
position to give peace to all sorts and conditions 
of men." It was then that the great exodus of 
Christians from the villages and cities to mountains 
and deserts began. Although from the time of 
Christ on there were always some who understood 
Christianity to demand complete separation from 
all earthly pleasures, yet it was three hundred years 
and more before large numbers began to adopt a 
hermit's life as the only method of attaining salva- 
tion. " They fled not only from the world, but 
from the world within the church. Nevertheless, 
they did not flee out of the church." 

We can now see why no definite cause for the 
monastic institution can be given and no date 
assigned for its origin. It did not commence at 
any fixed time and definite place. Various philos- 
ophies and religious customs traveled for centuries 
from country to country, resulting in singular resem- 
blances and differences between different ascetic or 
monastic sects. Christian monasticism was slowly 
evolved, and gradually assumed definite organization 



30 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

as a product of a curious medley of Heathen- Jewish- 
Christian influences. 

A few words should be said here concerning the 
influence of the Bible upon monasticism. Naturally 
the Christian hermits and early fathers appealed to 
the Bible in support of their teachings and practices. 
It is not necessary, at this point, to discuss the cor- 
rectness of their interpretations. The simple fact 
is that many passages of scripture were considered 
as commands to attain perfection by extraordinary 
sacrifices, and certain Biblical characters were rever- 
enced as shining monastic models. In the light of 
the difficulties of Biblical criticism it is easy to for- 
give them if they were mistaken, a question to be 
discussed farther on. They read of those Jewish 
prophets described in Hebrews : " They went about 
in sheepskins, in goatskins; . . . wandering in 
deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of 
the earth." They pointed to Elijah and his school 
of prophets ; to John the Baptist, with his raiment 
of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, 
whose meat was locusts and wild honey. They 
recalled the commandment of Jesus to the rich 



MONASTIC ISM in the EAST 31 

young man to sell all his possessions and give to 
the poor. They quoted the words, " Take no 
thought for the morrow what ye shall eat and what 
ye shall drink or wherewithal ye shall be clothed." 
They construed following Christ to mean in His 
own words, "forsaking father, mother, brethren, wife, 
children, houses and lands." They pointed tri- 
umphantly to the Master himself, unmarried and 
poor, who had not " where to lay his head." They 
appealed to PauFs doctrine of marriage. They 
remembered that the Church at Jerusalem was com- 
posed of those who sold their possessions and had 
all things in common. Whatever these and numer- 
ous other passages may truly mean, they interpreted 
them in favor of a monastic mode of life ; they 
understood them to teach isolation, fastings, severi- 
ties, and other forms of rigorous self-denial. Accept- 
ing Scripture in this sense, they trampled upon 
human affection and gave away their property, that 
they might please God and save their souls. 

Between the time of Christ and Paul of Thebes, 
who died in the first half of the fourth century, and 
who is usually recognized as the founder of monasti- 
cism, many Christian disciples voluntarily abandoned 



32 MONKS ^«^ monaster/ 

their wealth, renounced marriage and adopted an 
ascetic mode of life, while still living in or near the 
villages or cities. As the corruption of society and 
the despair of men became more widespread, these 
anxious Christians wandered farther and farther away 
from fixed habitations until, in an excess of spiritual 
fervor, they found themselves in the caves of the 
mountains, desolate and dreary, where no sound of 
human voice broke in upon the silence. The com- 
panions of wild beasts, they lived in rapt contempla- 
tion on the eternal mysteries of this most strange 
world. 

My task now is to describe some of those recluses 
who still live in the biographies of the saints and 
the traditions of the church. Ducis, while reading 
of these hermits, wrote to a friend as follows : " I 
am now reading the lives of the Fathers of the 
Desert. I am dwelling with St. Pachomius, the 
founder of the monastery at Tabenna. Truly there 
is a charm in transporting one's self to that land of 
the angels — one could not wish ever to come out of 
it." Whether the reader will call these strange 
characters angels, and will wish he could have shared 
their beds of stone and midnight vigils, I will 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M(? E A S T :^3 

venture to say, but at all events his visit will be made 
as pleasant as possible. 

In writing the life of Mahomet, Carlyle said, " As 
there is no danger of our becoming, any of us, 
Mahometans, I mean to say all the good of 
Mahomet I justly can." So, without distorting 
the picture that has come down to us, I mean to 
say all the good of these Egyptian hermits that the 
facts will justify. 

The Hermits of Egypt 

Egypt was the mother of Christian monasticism, 
as she has been of many other wonders. 

/a,st solitudes ; lonely mountains, honey-combed 

? h dens and caves; arid valleys and barren hills; 

I ary deserts that glistened under the blinding glare 

the sun that poured its heat upon them steadily 

the year ; strange, grotesque rocks and peaks 

t assumed all sorts of fantastic shapes to the 

irwrought fancy ; in many places no water, no 

dure, and scarcely a thing in motion; the croco- 

i and the bird lazily seeking their necessary food 

I stirring only as compelled ; unbounded expanse 



34 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

in the wide star-lit heavens ; unbroken quiet on the 
lonely mountains — a fit home for the hermit, a 
paradise to the lover of solitude and peace. 

Of life under such conditions Kingsley has said : 
" They enjoyed nature, not so much for her beauty 
as for her perfect peace. Day by day the rocks 
remained the same. Silently out of the Eastern 
desert, day by day, the rising sun threw aloft those 
arrows of light which the old Greeks had named 
' the rosy fingers of the dawn.' Silently he passed 
in full blaze above their heads throughout the day, 
and silently he dipped behind the Western desert 
in a glory of crimson and orange, green and purple. 
. . . Day after day, night after night, that 
gorgeous pageant passed over the poor hermit's 
head without a sound, and though sun, moon 
and planet might change their places as the years 
rolled round, the earth beneath his feet seemed not 
to change." As for the companionless men, who 
gazed for years upon this glorious scene, they too 
were of unusual character. Waddington finely says : 
" The serious enthusiasm of the natives of Egypt 
and Asia, that combination of indolence and energy, 
of the calmest languor with the fiercest passions, 



M O N A S T I C I S M />/ M^ E A S T 35 

. . . disposed them to embrace with eagerness 
the tranquil but exciting duties of religious seclu- 
sion." Yes, here are the angels of Ducis in real 
flesh and blood. They revel in the wildest eccen- 
tricities with none to molest or make afraid, always 
excepting the black demons from the spiritual world. 
One dwells in a cave in the bowels of the earth ; 
one lies on the sand beneath a blazing sun ; one has 
shut himself forever from the sight of man in a 
miserable hut among the bleak rocks of yonder 
projecting peak ; one rests with joy in the marshes, 
breathing with gratitude the pestilential vapors. 

Some of these saints became famous for piety and 
miraculous power. Athanasius, fleeing from perse- 
cution, visited them, and Jerome sought them out to 
learn from their own lips the stories of their lives. 
To these men and to others we are indebted for 
much of our knowledge concerning this chapter of 
man's history. Less than fifty years after Paul of 
Thebes died, or about 375 A. D., Jerome wrote the 
story of his life, which SchafF justly characterizes as 
" a pious romance." From Jerome we gather the 
following account : Paul was the real founder of the 
hermit life, although not the first to bear the name. 



^6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

During the Decian persecution, when churches were 
laid waste and Christians were slain with barbarous 
cruelty, Paul and his sister were bereaved of both 
their parents. He was then a lad of sixteen, an 
inheritor of wealth and skilled for one of his years 
in Greek and Egyptian learning. He was of a 
gentle and loving disposition. On account of his 
riches he was denounced as a Christian by an envious 
brother-in-law and compelled to flee to the moun- 
tains in order to save his life. He took up his 
abode in a cave shaded by a palm that afforded him 
food and clothing. " And that no one may deem 
this impossible," affirms Jerome, " I call to witness 
Jesus and his holy angels that I have seen and still 
see in that part of the desert which lies between 
Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom 
one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley 
bread and muddy water, while another in an old 
cistern kept himself alive on five dried figs a day." 
It is impossible to determine how much of the 
story which follows is historically true. Undoubt- 
edly, it contains little worthy of belief, but it gives 
us some faint idea of how these hermits lived. Its 
chief value consists in the fact that it preserves a 



M O N A S T I C I S M />/ M<? E A S T 37 

fragment of the monastic literature of the times — a 
story which was once accepted as a credible narrative. 
Imagine the influence of such a tale, when believed 
to be true, upon a mind inclined to embrace the 
doctrines of asceticism. Its power at that time is 
not to be measured by its reliability now. Jerome 
himself declares in the prologue that many incredible 
things were related of Paul which he will not repeat. 
After reading the following story, the reader may 
well inquire what more fanciful tale could be pro- 
duced even by a writer of fiction. 

The blessed Paul was now one hundred and 
thirteen years old, and Anthony, who dwelt in 
another place of solitude, was at the age of ninety. 
In the stillness of the night it was revealed to 
Anthony that deeper in the desert there was a 
better man than he, and that he ought to see him. 
So, at the break of day, the venerable old man, 
supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, 
started out, whither he knew not. At scorching 
noontide he beholds a fellow-creature, half man, 
half horse, called by the poets Hippo-centaur. After 
gnashing outlandish utterances, this monster, in 
words broken, rather than spoken, through his brist- 



38 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

ling lips, points out the way with his right hand and 
swiftly vanishes from the hermit's sight. Anthony, 
amazed, proceeds thoughtfully on his way when a 
mannikin, with hooked snout, horned forehead and 
goat's feet, stands before him and offers him food. 
Anthony asks who he is. The beast thus replies : 
" I am a mortal being, and one of those inhabitants 
of the desert, whom the Gentiles deluded by various 
forms of error worship, under the name of Fauns 
and Satyrs." As he utters these and other words, 
tears stream down the aged traveler's face ! He 
rejoices over the glory of God and the destruction 
of Satan. Striking the ground with his staff, he 
exclaims, " Woe to thee, Alexandria, who, instead 
of God, worshipest monsters ! Woe to thee, harlot 
city, into which have flowed together the demons of 
the world ! What will you say now ? Beasts speak 
of Christ, and you, instead of God, worship mon- 
sters." " Let none scruple to believe this incident," 
says the chronicler, " for a man of this kind was 
brought alive to Alexandria and the people saw 
him ; when he died his body was preserved in salt 
and brought to Antioch that the Emperor might 
view him." 



MONASTICISM in the EAST 



39 



Anthony continues to traverse the wild region 
into which he had entered. There is no trace of 
human beings. The darkness of the second night 
wears away in prayer. At day-break he beholds far 
away a she-wolf gasping with parched thirst and 
creeping into a cave. He draws near and peers 
within. All is dark, but perfect love casteth out 
fear. With halting step and bated breath, he enters. 
After a while a light gleams in the distant midnight 
darkness. With eagerness he presses forward, but 
his foot strikes against a stone and arouses the 
echoes ; whereupon the blessed Paul closes the 
door and makes it fast. For hours Anthony lay 
at the door craving admission. " I know I am not 
worthy," he humbly cries, " yet unless I see you I 
will not turn away. You welcome beasts, why not 
a man ? If I fail, I will die here on your threshold." 



**Such was his constant cry; unmoved he stood. 
To whom the hero thus brief answer made.'* 



Prayers like these do not mean threats, there is 
no trickery in tears." So, with smiles, Paul gives 
him entrance and the two aged hermits fall into each 



40 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

other's embrace. Together they converse of things 
human and divine, Paul, close to the dust of the 
grave, asks. Are new houses springing up in ancient 
cities ? What government directs the world ? Little 
did this recluse know of his fellow-beings and how 
fared it with the children of men who dwelt in those 
great cities around the blue Mediterranean. He 
was dead to the world and knew it no more. 

A raven brought the aged brothers bread to 
eat and the hours glided swiftly away. Anthony 
returned to get a cloak which Athanasius had given 
him in which to wrap the body of Paul. So eager 
was he to behold again his newly-found friend that 
he set out without even a morsel of bread, thirsting 
to see him. But when yet three days* journey from 
the cave he saw Paul on high among the angels* 
Weeping, he trudged on his way. On entering the 
cave he saw the lifeless body kneeling, with head 
erect and hands uplifted. He tenderly wrapped the 
body in the cloak and began to lament that he had 
no implements to dig a grave. But Providence 
sent two lions from the recesses of the mountain 
that came rushing with flying manes. Roaring, as 
if they too mourned, they pawed the earth and thus 



M O N A S T I C I S M /» //^^ E A S T 41 

the grave was dug. Anthony, bending his aged 
shoulders beneath the burden of the saint's body, 
laid it lovingly in the grave and departed. 

Jerome closes this account by challenging those 
who do not know the extent of their possessions, — 
who adorn their homes with marble and who string 
house to house, — to say what this old man in his 
nakedness ever lacked. " Your drinking vessels are 
of precious stones ; he satisfied his thirst with the 
hollow of his hand. Your tunics are wrought of 
gold ; he had not the raiment of your meanest slave. 
But on the other hand, poor as he was, Paradise is 
open to him ; you, with all your gold, will be 
received into Gehenna. He, though naked, yet 
kept the robe of Christ; you, clad in your silks, 
have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies covered 
with worthless dust, but will rise again to glory ; 
over you are raised costly tombs, but both you and 
your wealth are doomed to burning. I beseech you, 
reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome 
the sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, 
would sooner take PauFs tunics with his merits, than 
the purple of kings with their punishment." 

Such was the story circulated among rich and 



42 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

poor, appealing \vit\\ wondrous force to the hearts 
of men in those wretched years. 

What was the effect upon the mind of the 
thoughtful P If he believed such teaching, weary 
of the \^'ickedness of the age, and moved by his 
noblest sentiments, he sold his tunics wrought of 
gold and fled from his palaces of marble to the 
desert solitudes. 

But the monastic story that most strongly 
impressed the age now under consideration, was the 
biography of Anthony, " the patriarch of monks " 
and virtual founder of Christian monasticism. It 
was said to have been written by Athanasius, the 
famous defender of orthodoxy and Archbishop of 
Alexandria ; yet some authorities reject his author- 
ship. It exerted a power over the minds of men 
beyond all human estimate. It scattered the seeds 
of asceticism wherever it was read. Traces of its 
influence are found all over the Roman empire, in 
-^g'^T^' Asia Minor, Palestine, Italy and Gaul. 
Knowing the character of Athanasius, we may rest 
assured that he sincerely - believed all he really 
recorded (it is much interpolated) of the strange 
life of Anthony, and, true or false, thousands of 



M O N A S T I C I S M /» //^^ E A S T 43 

others believed in him and in his story. August- 
ine, the great theologian of immortal fame, acknowl- 
edged that this book was one of the influences 
that led to his conversion, and Jerome, whose 
life I will review later, was mightily swayed by it. 

Anthony was born about 251 A. D., in Upper 
Egypt, of wealthy and noble parentage. He was 
a pious child, an obedient son, and a lover of soli- 
tude and books. His parents died when he was 
about twenty years old, leaving to his care their 
home and his little sister. One day, as he entered 
the church, meditating on the poverty of Christ, a 
theme much reflected upon in those days, he heard 
these words read from the pulpit, "If thou wouldst 
be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to 
the poor, and come, follow me." As if the call came 
straight from heaven to his own soul, he left the 
church at once and made over his farm to the people 
of the village. He sold his personal possessions 
"* ■■ a large sum, and distributed the proceeds among 

. poor, reserving a little for his sister. Still he 
VV..S unsatisfied. Entering the church on another 
occasion, he heard our Lord saying in the gospel, 
" Take no thought for the morrow." The clouds 



44 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

cleared away. His anxious search for truth and 
duty was at an end. He went out and gave away 
the remnant of his belongings. Placing his sister 
in a convent, the existence of which is to be noted, 
he fled to the desert. Then follows a striking 
statement, " For monasteries were not common in 
Egypt, nor had any monk at all known the great 
desert ; but every one who wished to devote him- 
self to his own spiritual welfare performed his 
exercise alone, not far from the village." 

Laboring with his hands, recalling texts of Scrip- 
ture, praying whole sleepless nights, fasting for 
several days at a time, visiting his fellow saints, 
fighting demons, so passed the long years away. He 
slept on a small rush mat, more often on the bare 
ground. Forgetting past austerities, he was ever on 
the search for some new torture and pressing for- 
ward to new and strange experiences. He changed 
his habitation from time to time. Now he lived in 
a tomb, in company with the silent dead ; then for 
twenty years in a deserted castle, full of reptiles, 
never going out and rarely seeing any one. From 
each saint he learned some fresh mode of spiritual 
training, observing his practice for future imitation 



MONASTICISM in the Y. AST 



45 



and studying the charms of his Christian character 
that he might reproduce them in his own life ; thus 
he would return richly laden to his cell. 

But in all these struggles Anthony had one foe — 
the arch-enemy of all good. He suggests impure 
thoughts, but the saint repels them by prayer ; he 
incites to passion, but the hero resists the fiend with 
fastings and faith. Once the dragon, foiled in his 
attempt to overcome Anthony, gnashed his teeth, 
and coming out of his body, lay at his feet in the 
shape of a little black boy. But the hermit was 
not beguiled into carelessness by this victory. He 
resolved to chastise himself more severely. So he 
retired to the tombs of the dead. One dark night 
a crowd of demons flogged the saint until he fell to 
the ground speechless with torture. Some friends 
found him the next day, and thinking that he was 
dead, carried him to the village, where his kinsfolk 
gathered to mourn over his remains. But at mid- 
night he came to himself, and, seeing but one 
acquaintance awake, he begged that he would carry 
him back to the tombs, which was done. Unable 
to move, he prayed prostrate and sang, " If an host 
be laid against me, yet shall not my heart be afraid." 



46 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

The enraged devils made at him again. There was 
a terrible crash ; through the walls the fiends came 
in shapes like beasts and reptiles. In a moment 
the place was filled with lions roaring at him, bulls 
thrusting at him with their horns, creeping serpents 
unable to reach him, wolves held back in the act of 
springing. There, too, were bears and asps and 
scorpions. Mid the frightful clamor of roars, 
growls and hisses, rose the clear voice of the 
saint, as he triumphantly mocked the demons in 
their rage. Suddenly the awful tumult ceased ; the 
wretched beings became invisible and a ray of light 
pierced the roof to cheer the prostrate hero. His 
pains ceased. A voice came to him saying, '' Thou 
hast withstood and not yielded. I will always be 
thy helper, and will make thy name famous every- 
where." Hearing this he rose up and prayed, and 
was stronger in body than ever before. 

This is but one of numerous stories chronicling 
Anthony's struggles with the devil. Like conflicts 
were going on at that hour in many another cave 
in those great and silent mountains. 

There are also wondrous tales of his miraculous 
power. He often predicted the coming of sufferers 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ E A S T 47 

and healed them when they came. His fame for 
curing diseases and casting out devils became so 
extensive that Egypt marveled at his gifts, and 
saints came even from Rome to see his face and to 
hear his words. His freedom from pride and 
arrogance was as marked as his fame was great. 
He yielded joyful obedience to presbyters and 
bishops. His countenance was so full of divine 
grace and heavenly beauty as to render him easily 
distinguishable in a crowd of monks. Letters 
poured in upon him from every part of the empire. 
Kings wrote for his advice, but it neither amazed 
him nor filled his heart with pride. " Wonder 
not," said he, " if a king writes to us, for he is but 
a man, but wonder rather that God has written 
His law to man and spoken to us by His Son." 
At his command princes laid aside their crowns, 
judges their magisterial robes, while criminals for- 
sook their lives of crime and embraced with joy 
the life of the desert. 

Once, at the earnest entreaty of some magistrates, 
he came down from the mountain that they might 
see him. Urged to prolong his stay he refused, 
saying, " Fishes, if they lie long on the dry land. 



48 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

die ; so monks who stay with you lose their strength. 
As the fishes, then, hasten to the sea, so must we to 
the mountains/* 

At last the shadows lengthened and waning 
strength proclaimed that his departure was nigh. 
Bidding farewell to his monks, he retired to an 
inner mountain and laid himself down to die. His 
countenance brightened as if he saw his friends 
coming to see him, and thu«J his soul was gathered 
to his fathers. He is said to have been mourned 
by fifteen thousand disciples. 

This is the story which moved a dying empire. 
"Anthony," says Athanasius, "became known not 
by wordly wisdom, nor by any art, but solely by 
piety, and that this was the gift of God who can 
deny ? ** The purpose of such a life was, so his 
biographer thought, to light up the moral path for 
men, that they might imbibe a zeal for virtue. 

The " Life of St. Anthony " is even more 
remarkable for its omissions than for its incredible 
tales. While I reserve a more detailed criticism 
of its Christian ideals until a subsequent chapter, it 
may be well to quote here a few words from Isaac 
Taylor. After pointing out some of its defects he 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« //zd- E A S T 49 

continues : there is " not a word of justification by 
faith ; not a word of the gracious influence of the 
Spirit in renewing and cleansing the heart ; not a 
word responding to any of those signal passages of 
Scripture which make the Gospel ' Glad Tidings ' to 
guilty men." This I must confess to be true, 
even though I may and do heartily esteem the 
saint's enthusiasm for righteousness. 

So far I have described chiefly the spiritual 
experiences of these men, but the details of their 
physical life are hardly less interesting. There was 
a holy rivalry among them to excel in self-torture. 
Their imaginations were constantly employed in 
devising unique tests of holiness and courage. 
They lived in holes in the ground or in dried up 
wells ; they slept in thorn bushes or passed days 
and weeks without sleep ; they courted the com- 
pany of the wildest beasts and exposed their naked 
bodies to the broiling sun. Macarius became angry 
because an insect bit him and in penitence flung 
himself into a marsh where he lived for weeks. 
He was so badly stung by gnats and flies that his 
friends hardly knew him. Hilarion, at twenty years 
of age, was more like a spectre than a living man, 

4 



50 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

His cell was only five feet high, a little lower than 
his stature. Some carried weights equal to eighty 
or one hundred and fifty pounds suspended from 
their bodies. Others slept standing against the 
rocks. For three years, as it is recorded, one of 
them never recHned. In their zeal to obey the 
Scriptures, they overlooked the fact that cleanliness 
is akin to godliness. It was their boast that they 
never washed. One saint would not even use water 
to drink, but quenched his thirst with the dew that 
fell on the grass. St. Abraham never washed his 
face for fifty years. His biographer, not in the least 
disturbed by the disagreeable suggestions of this 
circumstance, proudly says, " His face reflected the 
purity of his soul." If so, one is moved to think 
that the inward light must indeed have been power- 
fully piercing, if it could brighten a countenance 
unwashed for half a century. There is a story 
about Abbot Theodosius who prayed for water that 
his monks might drink. In response to his petition 
a stream burst from the rocks, but the foolish monks, 
overcome by a pitiful weakness for cleanliness, per- 
suaded the abbot to erect a bath, when lo, the stream 
dried. Supplications and repentance availed nothing. 



k 



MONASTICISM/«//^^EAST 51 

After a year had passed, the monks, promising never 
again to insult Heaven by wishing for a bath, were 
granted a second Mosaic miracle. 

Thus, unwashed, clothed in rags, their hair uncut, 
their faces unshaven, they lived for years. No 
wonder that to their disordered fancy the desert was 
filled with devils, the animals spake and Heaven 
sent angels to minister unto them. 

The Pillar Saint 

But the strangest of all strange narratives yet 
remains. We turn from Egypt to Asia Minor to 
make the acquaintance of that saint whom Tenny- 
son has immortalized, — the idol of monarchs and the 
pride of the East, — Saint Simeon Stylites. Stories 
grow rank around him like the luxuriant products 
of a tropical soil. How shall I briefly tell of this 
man, whom Theodoret, in his zeal, declares all who 
obey the Roman rule know — the man who may be 
compared with Moses the Legislator, David the 
King and Micah the Prophet ? He lived between 
the years 390 and 459 A. D. He was a shepherd's 
son, but at an early age entered a monastery. Here 



52 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

he soon distinguished himself by his excessive 
austerities. One day he went to the well, removed 
the rope from the bucket and bound it tightly around 
his body underneath his clothes. A few weeks later, 
the abbot, being angry with him because of his 
extreme self-torture, bade his companions strip him. 
What was his astonishment to find the rope from 
the well sunk deeply into his flesh. " Whence," 
he cried, " has this man come to us, wanting to 
destroy the rule of this monastery? I pray thee 
depart hence." 

With great trouble they unwound the rope and 
the flesh with it, and taking care of him until he was 
well, they sent him forth to commence a life of 
austerities that was to render him famous. He 
adopted various styles of existence, but his miracles 
and piety attracted such crowds that he determined 
to invent a mode of life which would deliver him 
from the pressing multitudes. It is curious that he 
did not hide himself altogether if he really wished 
to escape notoriety ; but, no, he would still be within 
the gaze of admiring throngs. His holy and fan- 
ciful genius hit upon a scheme that gave him his 
peculiar name. He took up his abode on the top 



M O N A S T I C I S M /» M^ E A S T 53 

of a column which was at first about twelve feet 
high, but was gradually elevated until it measured 
sixty-four feet. Hence, he is called Simeon Stylites, 
or Simeon the Pillar Saint. 

On this lofty column, betwixt earth and heaven, 
the hermit braved the heat and cold of thirty years. 
At its base, from morning to night, prayed the 
admiring worshipers. Kings kneeled in crowds 
of peasants to do him homage and ask his blessing. 
Theodoret says, " The Ishmaelites, coming by 
tribes of two hundred and three hundred at a time, 
and sometimes even a thousand, deny, with shouts, 
the error of their fathers, and breaking in pieces 
before that great illuminator, the images which they 
had worshiped, and renouncing the orgies of Venus, 
they received the Divine sacrament." Rude bar- 
barians confessed their sins in tears. Persians, 
Greeks, Romans and Saracens, forgetting their 
mutual hatred, united in praise and prayer at the 
feet of this strange character. 

Once a week the hero partook of food. Many 
times a day he bowed his head to his feet ; one man 
counted twelve hundred and forty-four times and 
then stopped in sheer weariness from gazing at the 



54 



MONKS and MONASTERIES 



miracle of endurance aloft. Again, from the setting 
of the sun to its appearance in the East, he would 
stand unsoothed by sleep with his arms outstretched 
like a cross. 

If genius can understand such a life as that and 
fancy the thoughts of such a soul, Tennyson seems 
not only to have comprehended the consciousness 
of the Pillar Saint, but also to have succeeded in 
giving expression to his insight. He has laid bare 
the soul of Simeon in its commingling of spiritual 
pride with affected humility, and of a consciousness 
of meritorious sacrifice with a sense of sin. The 
Saint spurns notoriety and the homage of men, yet 
exults in his control over the multitudes. 

The poet thus imagines Simeon to speak as the 
Saint is praying God to take away his sin : 



"But yet 
Bethink thee, Lord, while thou and all the saints 
Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth 
House in the shade of comfortable roofs. 
Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food. 
And wear warm clothes, and even beasts have stalls, 
I, 'tween the spring and downfall of the light. 
Bow down one thousand and two hundred times. 
To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Saints ; 
Or in the night, after a little sleep, 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« />^^ E A S T 55 

I wake : the chill stars sparkle j I am wet 

With drenching dews, or stiff with crackling frost. 

I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back j 

A grazing iron collar grinds my neck j 

And in my weak, lean arms I lift the cross, 

And strive and wrestle with thee till I die s 

O mercy, mercy ! wash away my sin. 

O Lord, thou knowest what a man I am j 
A sinful man, conceived and born in sin : 
'Tis their own doing ; this is none of mine j 
Lay it not to me. Am I to blame for this. 
That here come those that worship me ? Ha ! ha ! 
They think that I am somewhat. What am I ? 
The silly people take me for a saint. 
And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers : 
And I, in truth (thou wilt bear witness here) 
Have all in all endured as much, and more 
Than many just and holy men, whose names 
Are register'd and calendared for saints. 

Good people, you do ill to kneel to me. 
What is it I can have done to merit this ? 



Yet do not rise ; for you may look on me, 
And in your looking you may kneel to God. 
Speak ! is there any of you halt or maim'd ? 
I think you know I have some power with Heaven 
From my long penance : let him speak his wish. 

Yes, I can heal him. Power goes forth from me. 
They say that they are heal'd. Ah, hark ! they shout 
«St. Simeon Stylites.' Why, if so, 
God reaps a harvest in me. O my soul, 
God reaps a harvest in thee. If this be. 
Can I work miracles and not be saved ? " 



56 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Once, the devil, in shape like an angel, riding in 
a chariot of fire, came to carry Simeon to the skies. 
He whispered to the weary Saint, " Simeon, hear 
my words, which the Lord hath commanded thee. 
He has sent me, his angel, that I may carry thee 
away as I carried Elijah." Simeon was deceived, 
and lifted his foot to step out into the chariot, when 
the angel vanished, and in punishment for his pre- 
sumption an ulcer appeared upon his thigh. 

But time plays havoc with saints as well as sinners, 
and death slays the strongest. Bowed in prayer, his 
weary heart ceased to beat and the eyes that gazed 
aloft were closed forever. Anthony, his beloved 
disciple, ascending the column, found that his master 
was no more. Yet, it seemed as if Simeon was 
loath to leave the spot, for his spirit appeared to 
his weeping follower and said, " I will not leave this 
column, and this blessed mountain. For I have 
gone to rest, as the Lord willed, but do thou not 
cease to minister in this place and the Lord will 
repay thee in heaven.** 

His body was carried down the mountain to 
Antioch. Heading the solemn procession were the 
patriarch, six bishops, twenty-one counts and six 



M O N A S T I C I S M /•« />^^ E A S T 57 

thousand soldiers, " and Antioch," says Gibbon, 
" revered his bones as her glorious ornament and 
impregnable defence." 

The Cenohites of the East 

We cannot linger with these hermits. I pass 
now to the cenobitic* life. We go back in years 
and return to Egypt. Man is a social animal, and 
the social instinct is so strong that even hermits are 
swayed by its power and get tired of living apart 
from one another. When Anthony died the deserts 
were studded with hermitages, and those of excep- 
tional fame were surrounded by little clusters of 
huts and dens. Into these cells crowded the hermits 
who wished to be near their master. 

Thus, step by step, organized or cenobitic 
monasticism easily and naturally came into exist- 
ence. The anchorites crawled from their dens every 
day to hear the words of their chief saint, — a 
practice giving rise to stated meetings, with rules 
for worship. Regulations as to meals, occupations, 
dress, penances, and prayers naturally follow\ 

^Appendix, Note C. 



58 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

The author of the first monastic rules is said to 
have been Pachomius, who was born in Egypt about 
the year 292 A. D. He was brought up in pagan- 
ism but was converted in early life while in the 
army. On his discharge he retired with a hermit to 
Tabenna, an island in the Nile. It is said he never 
ate a full meal after his conversion, and for fifteen 
years slept sitting on a stone. Natural gifts fitted 
him to become a leader, and it was not long before 
he was surrounded by a congregation of monks 
for whom he made his rules. 

The monks of Pachomius were divided into 
bands of tens and hundreds, each tenth man being 
an under officer in turn subject to the hundredth, and 
all subject to the superior or abbot of the mother 
house. They lived three in a cell, and a congregation 
of cells constituted a laura or monastery. There 
was a common room for meals and worship. Each 
monk wore a close fitting tunic and a white goat- 
skin upper garment which was never laid aside at 
meals or in bed, but only at the Eucharist. Their 
food usually consisted of bread and water, but 
occasionally they enjoyed such luxuries as oil, salt, 
fruits and vegetables. They ate in silence, which 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ E A S T 59 

was sometimes broken by the solemn voice of a 
reader. 

"No man/' says Jerome, "dares look at his 
neighbor or clear his throat. Silent tears roll down 
their cheeks, but not a sob escapes their lips." 
Their labors consisted of some light handiwork or 
tilling the fields. They grafted trees, made bee- 
hives, twisted fish-lines, wove baskets and copied 
manuscripts. It was early apparent that as man 
could not live alone so he could not live without 
labor. We shall see this principle emphasized 
more clearly by Benedict, but it is well to notice 
that at this remote day provision was made for 
secular employments. Jerome enjoins Rusticus, 
a young monk, always to have some work on hand 
that the devil may find him busy. " Hoe your 
ground," says he, " set out cabbages ; convey 
water to them in conduits, that you may see with 
your own eyes the lovely vision of the poet, — 

" Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near, 
Till the stream, flashing down among the rocks. 
Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst." 

There were individual cases of excessive self- 



6o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

torture even among these congregations of monks, 
but we may say that ordinarily, organized monas- 
ticism was altogether less severe upon the individual 
than anchoretic life. The fact that the monk was 
seeking human fellowship is evidence that he was 
becoming more humane, and this softening of his 
spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of himself 
The aspect of life became a little brighter and 
happier. 

Four objects were comprehended in these monastic 
rules, — solitude, manual labor, fasting and prayer. 
We need not pity these dwellers far from walled 
cities and the marts of trade. Indeed, they claim 
no sympathy. Religious ideals can make strange 
transformations in man's disposition and tastes. 
They loved their hard lives. 

The hermit Abraham said to John Cassian, 
" We know that in these, our regions, there are 
some secret and pleasant places, where fruits are 
abundant and the beauty and fertility of the gardens 
would supply our necessities with the slightest toil. 
We prefer the wilderness of this desolation before 
all that is fair and attractive, admitting no com- 
parison between the luxuriance of the most exuber- 



MONASTICISM/«//^^EAST 6i 

ant soil and the bitterness of these sands." Jerome 
himself exclaimed, " Others may think what they 
like and follow each his own bent. But to me a 
town is a prison and solitude paradise." 

The three vows of chastity, poverty and obedi- 
ence were adopted and became the foundation stones 
of the monastic institution, to be found in every 
monastic order. There is a typical illustration in 
Kingsley's Hypatia of what they meant by obedience. 
Philammon, a young monk, was consigned to the care 
of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria, and a factious, 
cruel man, with an imperious will. The bishop 
received and read his letter of introduction and thus 
addressed its bearer, " Philammon, a Greek. You 
are said to have learned to obey. If so, you have 
also learned to rule. Your father-abbot has trans- 
ferred you to my tutelage. You are now to obey 
me." " And I will," was the quick response. 
"Well said. Go to that window and leap forth into 
the court." Philammon walked to it and opened 
it. The pavement was fully twenty feet below, but 
his business was to obey and not to take measure- 
ments. There was a flower in a vase upon the sill. 
He quietly removed it, and in an instant would have 



62 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

leaped for life or death, when Cyril*s voice thun- 
dered, " Stop ! " 

The Pachomian monks despised possessions of 
every kind. The following pathetic incident shows 
the frightful extent to which they carried this prin- 
ciple, and also illustrates the character of that sub- 
mission to which the novitiate voluntarily assented : 
Cassian described how Mutius sold his possessions 
and with his little child of eight asked admission to 
a monastery. The monks received but disciplined 
him. "He had already forgotten that he was rich, 
he must forget that he was a father.** His child 
was taken, clothed in rags, beaten and spurned. 
Obedience compelled the father to look upon his 
child wasting with pain and grief, but such was his 
love for Christ, says the narrator, that his heart was 
rigid and immovable. He was then told to throw 
the boy into the river, but was stopped in the act 
of obeying. 

Yet men, women, and even children, coveted this 
life of unnatural deprivations. " Posterity,*' says 
Gibbon, " might repeat the saying which had 
formerly been applied to the sacred animals of the 
same country, that in Egypt it was less difficult to 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ E A S T 6;^ 

find a god than a man." Though the hermit did 
not claim to be a god, yet there were more monks 
in many monasteries than inhabitants in the neigh- 
boring villages. Pachomius had fourteen hundred 
monks in his own monastery and seven thousand 
under his rule. Jerome says fifty thousand monks 
were sometimes assembled at Easter in the deserts 
of Nitria. It was not uncommon for an abbot to 
command five thousand monks. St. Serapion 
boasted of ten thousand. Altogether, so we are 
told, there were in the fifth century more than one 
hundred thousand persons in the monasteries, three- 
fourths of whom were men. 

The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into 
Syria and Palestine. It was carried by Athanasius 
into Italy and Gaul. It existed in various modified 
forms until it was supplanted by the Benedictine 
rule. 

Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediter- 
ranean into Asia Minor. Near the Black Sea, in a 
wild forest abounding in savage rocks and gloomy 
ravines, there dwelt a young man of twenty-six. 
He had traveled in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. 
He had visited the hermits of the desert and studied 



64 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

philosophy and eloquence in cultured Athens. In 
virtue eminent, in learning profound, this poetic 
soul sought to realize its ideal in a lonely and 
cherished retreat — in a solitude of Pontus. 

The young monk is the illustrious saint and 
genius, — Basil the Great, — the Bishop of Caesarea, 
and the virtual founder of the monastic institution 
in the Greek church. The forest and glens around 
his hut belonged to him, and on the other bank of 
the river Iris his mother and sister were leading 
similar lives, having abandoned earthly honors in 
pursuit of heaven. Hard crusts of bread appeased 
his hunger. No fires, except those which burned 
within his soul, protected him from the wintry blast. 
His years were few but well spent. After a while 
his powerful intellect asserted itself and he was led 
into a clearer view of the true spiritual life. His 
practical mind revolted against the gross ignorance 
and meaningless asceticism of Egypt. He deter- 
mined to form an order that would conform to the 
inner meaning of the Bible and to a more sensible 
conception of the religious life. For his time he 
was a wise legislator, a cunning workman and a 
daring thinker. The modification of his ascetic 



[ ONASTICISM/«M^EAST 6 s 

as attended by painful struggles. Many an 

le spent with his bosom friend, Gregory of 

nza, discussing the subject. The middle 

i which they finally adopted is thus neatly 

bed by Gregory : 



** Long was the inward strife, till ended thus : 
I saw, when men lived in the fretful world. 
They vantaged other men, but missed the while 
The calmness, and the pureness of their hearts. 
They who retired held an uprighter post, 
And raised their eyes with quiet strength toward heaven j 
Yet served self only, unfraternally. 
And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path, 
To meditate with the free solitary, 
Yet to live secular, and serve mankind." 



Monks in large numbers flocked to this mountain 
retreat of Basil's. These he banded together in an 
organization, the remains of which still live in the 
Greek church. So great is the influence of his life 
and teachings, " that it is common though erroneous 
to call all Oriental monks Basilians.*' His rules 
are drawn up in the form of answers to two hundred 
and three questions. He added to the three monastic 
vows a fourth, which many authorities claim now 

5 



66 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

appeared for the first time^ — namely, that of irrevo- 
cable vows — once a monk, always a monk. 

Basil did not condemn marriage, but he believed 
that it was incompatible with the highest spiritual 
attainments. For the Kingdom of God*s sake it 
was necessary to forsake all. " Love not the world, 
neither the things of the world," embraced to his 
mind the married state. By avoiding the cares of 
marriage a man was sure to escape, so he thought, 
the gross sensuality of the age. He struck at the 
dangers which attend the possession of riches, by 
enforcing poverty. An abbot was appointed over 
his cloisters to whom absolute obedience was 
demanded. Everywhere men needed this lesson 
of obedience. The discipline of the armies was 
relaxed. The authority of religion was set at 
naught ; laxity and disorder prevailed even among 
the monks. They went roaming over the country 
controlled only by their whims. Insubordination 
had to be checked or the monastic institution was 
doomed. Hence, Basil was particular to enforce a 
respect for law and order. 

Altogether this was an honest and serious attempt 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ E A S T 67 

to introduce fresh power into a corrupt age and to 
faithfully observe the Biblical commands as Basil 
understood them. The floods of iniquity were 
engulfing even the church. A new standard had 
to be raised and an inner circle of pious and zealous 
believers gathered from the multitude of half-pagan 
Christians, or all was lost. 

The subsequent history of Greek monachism has 
little interest. In Russia, at a late date, the Greek 
monks served some purpose in keeping alive the 
national spirit under the Tartar yoke, but the 
practical benefits to the East were few, in com- 
parison with the vigorous life of the Western mon- 
asticism. 

Montalembert, the brilliant champion of Christ- 
ian monasticism, becomes an adverse critic of the 
system in the East, although it is noteworthy he 
now speaks of monasticism as it appears in the 
Greek church, which he holds to be heretical ; yet 
his indictment is quite true : " They yielded to all 
the deleterious impulses of that declining society. 
They have saved nothing, regenerated nothing, 
elevated nothing." 

We have visited the hermit in the desert and in 



68 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

the monastery governed by its abbot and its rules. 
We must view the monk in one other aspect, that 
of theological champion. Here the hermit and the 
monk of the monastery meet on common ground. 
They were fighters, not debaters ; fighters, not dis- 
ciplined soldiers ; fighters, not persuading Christians. 
They swarmed down from the mountains like hun- 
gry wolves. They fought heretics, they fought 
bishops, they fought Roman authorities, they fought 
soldiers, and fought one another. Ignorant, fanat- 
ical and cruel, they incited riots, disturbed the public 
peace and shed the blood of foes. 

Theological discord was made a thousand times 
more bitter by their participation in the controversies 
of the time. Furious monks became the armed 
champions of Cyril, the Bishop of Alexandria. 
They insulted the prefect, drove out the Jews and, 
to the everlasting disgrace of the monks, Cyril and 
the church, they dragged the lovely Hypatia from 
her lecture hall and slew her with all the cruelty 
Satanic ingenuity could devise. Against a back- 
ground of black and angry sky she stands forth, 
as a soul through whose reason God made himself 
manifest. Her unblemished character, her learning 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ E A S T 69 

and her grace forever cry aloud against an ortho- 
doxy bereft alike of reason and of the spirit of the 
Nazarene. 

The fighting monks crowded councils and forced 
decisions. They deposed hostile bishops or kept 
their favorites in power by murder and violence. 
Two black-cowled armies met in Constantinople, 
and amid curses fought with sticks and stones a 
battle of creeds. Criesof " Holy ! Holy! Holy!" 
mingled with, " It's the day of martyrdom ! Down 
with the tyrant ! '* The whole East was kept in a 
feverish state. The Imperial soldiers confessed 
their justifiable fears when they said, " We would 
rather fight with barbarians than with these monks." 

No wonder our perplexity increases and it seems 
impossible to determine what these men really did 
for the cause of truth. We have been unable to 
distinguish the hermit from the beasts of the fields. 
We hear his groans, see his tears, and watch him 
struggle with demons. We are disgusted with his 
filth, amused at his fancies, grieved at his supersti- 
tion. We pity his agony and admire his courage. 
We watch the progress of order and rule out of 
chaos. We see monasteries grow up around damp 



70 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

caves and dismal huts. We behold Simeon praying 
among the birds of heaven, and look into the face 
of the young and handsome Basil, in whom the 
monastic institution of the East reaches the zenith 
of its power. 

I am free to confess a profound reverence for 
many of these men determined at all hazards to 
keep their souls unspotted from the world. I bow 
before a passion for righteousness ready to part 
with life itself if necessary. Yet the gross extrava- 
gances, the almost incredible absurdities of their 
unnatural lives compel us to withhold our judgment. 

One thing is certain, the strange life of those 
far-off years is an eloquent testimony to the inde- 
structible craving of the human soul for self-mastery 
and soul-purity. 



II 



MONASriCISM IN THE JVESr.- ANTE- 
BENEDICTINE MONKS 340-480 A.D, 

WE ARE NOW to follow the fortunes 
of the monastic system from its 
introduction in Rome to the time 
of Benedict of Nursia, the founder 
of the first great monastic order. 

Constantine the Great, the first Christian em- 
peror, who made Christianity the predominant 
religion in the Roman Empire, died in 337 
A. D. Three years later Rome heard, probably 
for the first time, an authentic account of the 
Egyptian hermits. The story was carried to the 
Eternal City by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 
one of the most remarkable characters in the early 
church, a man of surpassing courage and persever- 
ance, an intrepid foe of heresy, " heroic and 
invincible," as Milton styled him. Twenty of the 

71 



72 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

forty-six years of his official life were spent in 
banishment. 

Athanasius was an intimate friend of the hermit 
Anthony and a persistent advocate of the ascetic 
ideal. When he fled to Rome, in 340, to escape the 
persecutions of the Arians, he took with him two 
specimens of monastic virtue — Ammonius and 
Isidore. These hermits, so filthy and savage in 
appearance, albeit, as I trust, clean in heart, excited 
general disgust, and their story of the tortures and 
holiness of their Egyptian brethren was received 
with derision. But men who had faced and con- 
quered the terrors of the desert were not to be so 
easily repulsed. Aided by other ascetic travelers 
from the East they persisted in their propaganda 
until contempt yielded to admiration. The enthu- 
siasm of the uncouth hermits became contagious. I 
The Christians in Rome now welcomed the story 
of the recluses as a Divine call to abandon a 
dissolute society for the peace and joy of a desert 
life. 

But before this transformation of public opinion 
can be appreciated, it is needful to know something 
of the social and religious condition of Rome in 



M O N A S T I C I S M /» M(? W E S T 73 

the days when Athanasius and his hermits walked 
her streets. 

After suffering frightful persecutions for three 
centuries, the Church had at last nominally con- 
quered the Roman Empire ; nominally, because 
although Christianity was to live, the Empire had to 
die. " No medicine could have prevented the 
diseased old body from dying. The time had come. 
When the wretched inebriate embraces a spiritual 
religion with one foot in the grave, with a constitu- 
tion completely undermined, and the seeds of death 
planted, then no repentance or lofty aspiration can 
prevent physical death. It was so in Rome." The 
death-throes were long and lingering, as befits the 
end of a mighty giant, but death was certain. There 
are many facts which explain the inability of a 
conquering faith to save a tottering empire, but it 
is impracticable for us to enter upon that wide 
field. Some help may be gained from that which 
follows. 

Of morals, Rome was destitute. She possessed 
the material remains and superficial acquirements of 
a proud civilization, such as great public highways, 
marble palaces, public baths, temples and libraries. 



74 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Elegance of manners and acquisitions of wealth 
indicate specious outward refinement. But these 
things are not sufficient to guarantee the permanence 
of institutions or the moral welfare of a nation. In 
the souls of men there was a fatal degeneracy. 
There was outward prosperity but inward cor- 
ruption. 

Professor Samuel Dill, in his highly instructive 
work on " Roman Society in the Last Century of 
the Western Empire," points out the fact that 
Rome*s fall was due to economic and political causes 
as well as to the deterioration of her morals. A 
close study of these causes, however, will reveal the 
presence of moral influences. Professor Dill says : 
" The general tendency of modern inquiry has to 
discover in the fall of that august and magnificent 
organization, not a cataclysm, precipitated by the 
impact of barbarous forces, but a process slowly 
prepared and evolved by internal and economic 
causes." Two of these causes were the dying out of 
municipal liberty and self-government, and the separ- 
ation of the upper class from the masses by sharp 
distributions of wealth and privilege. It is indeed 
true that these causes contributed to Rome's ruin ; 



M O N A S T I C I S M /•» M^ W E S T 



75 



that the central government was weak ; that the civil 
service was oppressive and corrupt ; that the aristo- 
cratic class was selfish ; and that the small landed 
proprietors were steadily growing poorer and fewer, 
while, on the contrary, the upper or senatorial class 
was increasing in wealth and power. But after due 
emphasis has been accorded to these destructive 
factors, it yet remains true that the want of public 
spirit and the prevailing cultivated selfishness may 
be traced to a decline of faith in those religious 
ideals that serve to stimulate the moral life and thus 
preserve the national integrity. 

Society was divided into three classes. It is 
computed that one-half the population were slaves. 
A large majority of the remainder were paupers, 
living on public charity, and constituting a festering 
soj-e that threatened the life of the social organism. 
The rich, who were relatively few, squandered 
princely incomes in a single night, and exhausted 
their imaginations devising new and expensive forms 
of sensuous pleasure. The profligacy of the nobles 
almost surpasses credibility, so that trustworthy des- 
criptions read like works of fiction. Farrar says : 
" A whole population might be trembling lest they 



76 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

should be starved by the delay of an Alexandrian 
corn ship, while the upper classes were squandering 
a fortune at a single banquet, drinking out of 
myrrhine and jeweled vases worth hundreds of 
pounds, and feasting on the brains of peacocks and 
the tongues of nightingales." The frivolity of the 
social and political leaders of Rome, the insane 
thirst for lust and luxury, the absence of seriousness 
in the face of frightful, impending ruin, almost 
justify the epigram of Silvianus, " Rome was laugh- 
ing when she died/' 

" On that hard pagan world disgust 

And secret loathing fell j 
Deep weariness and sated lust 

Made human life a hell. ) 
In his cool hall, with haggard eyes, 

The Roman noble lay j 
He drove abroad in furious guise 

Along the Appian Way j 
He made a feast, drank fierce and fast. 

And crowned his hair with flowers — 
No easier nor no quicker past 

The impracticable hours." 

Pagan mythology and Pagan philosophy were 
powerless to resist this downward tendency. 
Although Christianity had become the state religion. 



M O N A ST I C I S M /« //^^ W E S T 77 

it was itself in great danger of yielding to the decay 
that prevailed. The Empire was, in fact, but 
nominally Christian. Thousands of ecclesiastical 
adherents were half pagan in their spirit and prac- 
tice. Harnack declares, " They were too deeply 
affected by Christianity to abandon it, but too little 
to be Christians. Pure religious enthusiasm waned, 
ideals received a new form, and the dependence and 
responsibility of individuals became weaker." Even 
ordinary courage had everywhere declined and the 
pleasures of the senses controlled the heart of 
Christian society. 

Many of the men who should have resisted this 
gross secularization of the church, who ought to 
have set their faces against the departure from 
apostolic ideals by exalting the standards of the 
earlier Christianity ; these men, the clergy of the 
Christian church, had deserted their post of duty 
and surrendered to the prevailing worldliness. 

Jerome describes, with justifiable sarcasm, these 
moral weaklings, charged with the solemn respon- 
sibility of preaching a pure gospel to a dying 
empire. " Such men think of nothing but their 
dress ; they use perfumes freely, and see that there 



78 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

are no creases in their leather shoes. Their curling fl 
hair shows traces of the tongs ; their fingers glisten 
with rings ; they walk on tiptoe across a damp 
road, not to splash their feet. When you see men 
acting that way, think of them rather as bride- 
grooms than as clergymen. If he sees a pillow 
that takes his fancy, or an elegant table-cover, or, 
indeed, any article of furniture, he praises it, looks 
admiringly at it, takes it into his hand, and, com- 
plaining that he has nothing of the kind, begs or 
rather extorts it from its owner." Such trifling folly 
was fatal. The times demanded men of vigorous 
spirit, who dared to face the general decline, and cry 
out in strong tones against it. The age needed 
moral warriors, with the old Roman courage and 
love of sacrifice ; martyrs willing to rot in prison or 
shed their blood in the street, not effeminate men, 
toying with fancy table-covers and tiptoeing across a 
sprinkled road. " And as a background," says 
Kingsley, " to all this seething heap of corruption, 
misrule and misery, hung the black cloud of the 
barbarians, the Teutonic tribes from whom we derive 
our best blood, ever coming nearer and nearer, 
waxing stronger and stronger, to be soon the con- 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ W E S T 79 

querors of the Caesars and the masters of the world." 
But there were many pure and sincere Christians — 
a saving remnant. The joyous alacrity with which 
men and women responded to the monastic call, and 
entered upon careers of self-torture for the sake of 
deliverance from moral corruption, shows that the 
spirit of true faith was not extinct. These seekers 
after righteousness may be described as ''a dismal 
and fanatical set of men, overlooking the practical 
aims of life/* but it is a fair question to ask, '' if 
they had not abandoned the world to its fate would 
they not have shared that fate ? '* " The glory of 
that age," says Professor Dill, " is the number of 
those who were capable of such self-surrender ; and 
an age should be judged by its ideals, not by the 
mediocrity of conventional religion masking worldly 
self-indulgence. This we have always with us ; the 
other we have not always." 

Yet the sad fact remains that the transforming 
power of Christianity was practically helpless before 
the surging floods of vice and superstition. The 
noble struggles of a few saints were as straws in a 
hurricane. The church had all she could do to save 
herself. 



8o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

" When Christianity itself was in such need of 
reform," says Lord, " when Christians could scarcely 
be distinguished from pagans in love of display, 
and in egotistical ends, how could it reform the 
world? When it was a pageant, a ritualism, an 
arm of the state, a vain philosophy, a superstition, 
a formula, how could it save, if ever so dominant ? 
The corruptions of the church in the fourth century 
are as well authenticated as the purity and moral 
elevation of Christians in the second century." 
Even in the early days of Christianity the ruin of 
Rome was impending, but, at that time, the 
adherents of the Christian religion were few and 
poor. They did not possess enough power and 
influence to save the state. When monasticism 
came to Rome, the lords of the church were get- 
ting ready to sit upon the thrones of princes, but 
the dazzling victory of the church was not a spiritual 
conquest of sin, so the last ray of hope for the 
Empire was extinguished. Her fall was inevitable. 

With this outlined picture in mind, fancy Athan- 
asius and his monks at Rome. These men despise 
luxury and contemn riches. They have come to 
make Rome ring with the old war cries, — although 



MONASTICISM in the WEST 8i 

they wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against 
spiritual wickedness in high places. Terror and 
despair are on every side, but they are not afraid. 
They know what it means to face the demons of 
the desert, to lie down at night with wild beasts 
for companions. They have not yielded to the 
depravity of the human heart and the temptations 
of a licentious age. They have conquered sinful 
appetites by self-abnegation and fasting. They come 
to a distracted society with a message of peace — a 
peace won by courageous self-sacrifice. They call 
men to save their perishing souls by surrendering 
their wills to God and enlisting in a campaign 
against the powers of darkness. They appeal to 
the ancient spirit of courage and love of hardship. 
They arouse the dormant moral energies of the 
profligate nobles, proud of the past and sick of the 
present. The story of Anthony admonished Rome 
that a life of sensuous gratification was inglorious, 
unworthy of the true Roman, and that the flesh 
could be mastered by heroic endeavor. 

Women, who spent their hours in frivolous 
amusements, welcomed with gratitude the discovery 
that they could be happy without degradation, and 



82 MONKS ^;/i MONASTERIES 

joyfully responded to the call of righteousness. 
" Despising themselves," says Kingsley, " despising 
their husbands to whom they had been wedded in 
loveless wedlock, they too fled from a world which 
had sated and sickened them." 

Woman's natural craving for lofty friendships and 
pure aspirations found satisfaction in the monastic 
ideal. She fled from the incessant broils of a cor- 
rupt court, from the courtesans that usurped the 
place of the wife, from the insolence and selfishness 
of men who scorned even the appearance of virtue 
and did not hesitate to degrade even their wives and 
sisters. She would disprove the biting sarcasm of 
Juvenal, — 

** Women, in judgment weak, in feeling strong. 
By every gust of passion borne along. 



A woman stops at nothing, when she wears 
Rich emeralds round her neck, and in her ears 
Pearls of enormous size j these justify 
Her faults, and make all lawful in her eye." 

Therefore did the women hear with tremulous 
eagerness the story of the saintly inhabitants of the 
desert, and flinging away their trinkets, they 
hastened to the solitude of the cell, there to mourn 



MONASTICISiM in the WEST 83 

their folly and seek pardon and peace at the feet 
of the Most High. 

Likewise, the men, born to nobler tasks than 
fawning upon princes and squandering life and 
fortune in gluttony and debauchery, blushed for 
shame, and abandoned forever the company of 
sensualists and parasites. Potitianus, a young 
officer of rank, read the life of Anthony, and cried 
to his fellow-soldier: ''Tell me, I pray thee, 
whither all our labors tend ? What do we seek ? 
For whom do we carry arms ? What can be our 
greatest hope in the palace but to be friends to the 
Emperor ? And how frail is that fortune ! What 
perils ! When shall this be ? " Inspired by the 
monastic story he exchanged the friendship of the 
Emperor for the friendship of God, and the military 
life lost all its attractiveness. 

A philosopher and teacher hears the same narra- 
tive, and his countenance becomes grave ; he seizes 
the arm of Alypius, his friend, and earnestly asks : 
" What, then, are we doing ? How is this ? What 
hast thou been hearing ? These ignorant men rise ; 
they take Heaven by force, and we, with our heart- 
less sciences, behold us wallowing in the flesh and 



84 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

in our blood ! Is it shameful to follow them, and 
are we not rather disgraced by not following them ? " 
So, disgusted with his self-seeking career, his round 
of empty pleasures, he, too, is moved by this higher 
call to abandon his wickedness and devote his genius 
to the cause of righteousness. 

Ambrose, Paulinus, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, 
and many others, holding important official posts or 
candidates for the highest honors, abandoned all 
their chances of political preferment in order to 
preach the gospel of ascetic Christianity. 

Yes, for good or evil, Rome is profoundly stirred. 
The pale monk, in all his filth and poverty, is the 
master of the best hearts in the capital. Every one 
in whom aspiration is still alive, who longs for some 
new light, and all who vaguely grope after a higher 
life, hear his voice and become pliant to his will. 

" Great historic movements," says Grimke, " are 
born not in whirlwinds, in earthquakes, and pomps 
of human splendor and power, but in the agonies 
and enthusiasms of grand, heroic spirits." Monastic 
history, like secular, centers in the biographies of 
such great men as Anthony, Basil, Jerome, Benedict, 
Francis, Dominic and Loyola. To understand the 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M(f W E S T 85 

character of the powerful forces set in motion by 
the coming of the monks to Rome, it is necessary 
to know the leading spirits whose preeminent 
abilities and lofty personalities made Western 
monasticism what it was. 

The time is about 418 A. D. ; the place, a 
monastery in Bethlehem, near the cave of the 
Nativity. In a lonely cell, within these monastic 
walls, we shall find the man we seek. He is so 
old and feeble that he has to be raised in his bed by 
means of a cord affixed to the ceiling. He spends 
his time chiefly in reciting prayers. His voice, once 
clear and resonant, sinks now to a whisper. His 
failing vision no longer follows the classic pages of 
Virgil or dwells fondly on the Hebrew of the Old 
Testament. This is Saint Jerome, the champion 
of asceticism, the biographer of hermits, the lion of 
Christian polemics, the translator of the Bible, and 
the worthy, brilliant, determined foe of a dissolute 
society and a worldly church. Although he spent 
thirty-four years of his life in Palestine, I shall con- 
sider Jerome in connection with the monasticism of 
the West, for it was in Rome that he exercised his 
greatest influence. His translation of the Scriptures 



86 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

is the Vulgate of the Roman church, and his name 
is enrolled in the calendar of her saints. " He is," 
observes Schaff, '^ the connecting link between the 
Eastern and Western learning and religion." 

By charming speech and eloquent tongue Jerome 
won over the men, but principally the women, of 
Rome to the monastic life. So powerful was his 
message when addressed to the feminine heart, that 
mothers are said to have locked their daughters in 
their rooms lest they should fall under the influence 
of his magnetic voice. It was largely owing to his 
own labors that he could write in after years : 
" Formerly, according to the testimony of the 
apostles, there were few rich, few noble, few powerful 
among the Christians. Now, it is no longer so. 
Not only among the Christians, but among the 
monks are to be found a multitude of the wise, the 
noble and the rich." 

Near to the very year that Athanasius came to 
Rome, or about 340 A. D., Jerome was born at 
Stridon, in Dalmatia, in what is now called the 
Austro-Hungarian monarchy. His parents were 
modestly wealthy and were slaveholders. His 
student days were spent in Rome, where he divided 



M O N A S T I C I S M /•« //^^ W E S T 87 

his time between the study of books and the revels 
of the streets. One day some young Christians 
induced him to visit the catacombs with them. 
Here, before the graves of Christian martyrs, a 
quiet and holy influence stole into his heart, that 
finally led to his conversion and baptism. Embrac- 
ing the monastic ideal, he gathered around him a 
few congenial friends, who joined him in a covenant 
of rigid abstinence and ascetic discipline. Then 
followed a year of travel with these companions, 
through Asia Minor, ending disastrously at Antioch. 
One of his friends returned home, two of them 
died, and he himself became so sick with fever that 
his life was despaired of. Undismayed by these 
evils, brought on by excessive austerities, he 
determined to retire to a life of solitude. 

About fifty miles southeast from Antioch was a 
barren waste of nature but a paradise for monks — 
the Desert of Chalcis. On its western border were 
several monasteries. All about for miles, the dreary 
solitudes were peopled with shaggy hermits. They 
saw visions and dreamed dreams in caves infested 
by serpents and wild beasts. They lay upon the 
sands, scorched in summer by the blazing sun, and 



88 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

chilled in winter by the winds that blew from snow- 
capped mountains. For five years, Jerome dwelt 
among these demon-fighting recluses. Clad in 
sackcloth stained by penitential tears, he toiled for 
his daily bread, and struggled against visions of 
Roman dancing girls. He was a most industrious 
reader of books and a great lover of debate. 
Monks from far and near visited him, and together 
they discussed questions of theology and philosophy. 
But we may not follow this varied and eventful 
life in all its details. After a year or two spent at 
Constantinople, and three years at Rome, he returned 
to the East, visiting the hermits of Egypt on his 
way, and finally settled at Bethlehem. His fame 
soon drew around him a great company of monks. 
These he organized into monasteries. He built a 
hospital, and established an inn for travelers. Lack- 
ing the necessary funds to carry out his projects, he 
dispatched his brother to the West with instructions 
to sell what was left of his property, and the pro- 
ceeds of this sale he devoted to the cause. While 
in Bethlehem he wrote defences of orthodoxy, 
eulogies of the dead, lives of saints and com- 
mentaries on the Bible. He also completed his 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M(? W E S T 89 

translation of the Scriptures, and wrote numerous 
letters to persons dwelling in various parts of the 
empire. 

Jerome rendered great service to monasticism by 
his literary labors. He invested the dullest of lives 
with a halo of glory ; under the magic touch of his 
rhetoric the wilderness became a gladsome place and 
the desert blossomed as the rose. His glowing lan- 
guage transfigured the pale face and sunken eyes 
of the starved hermit into features positively beau- 
tiful, while the rags that hung loosely upon his 
emaciated frame became garments of lustrous 
white. "Oh, that I could behold the desert," he 
cries, " lovelier than any city ! Oh, that I could see 
those lonely spots made into a paradise by the saints 
that throng them ! '* Without detracting from the 
bitterness of the prospect, he glorifies the courage 
that can face the horrors of the desert, and the heart 
that can rejoice midst the solitude of the seas. 
Hear him describe the home of Bonosus, a hermit 
on an isle in the Adriatic : 

" Bonosus, your friend, is now climbing the ladder 
foreshown in Jacob's dream. He is bearing his 
cross, neither taking thought for the morrow, nor 



go MONKS and MONASTERIES 

looking back at what he has left. Here you have 
a youth, educated with us in the refining accom- 
plishments of the world, with abundance of wealth 
and in rank inferior to none of his associates ; 
yet he forsakes his mother, his sister, and his 
dearly loved brother, and settles like a new tiller 
of Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roar- 
ing round its reefs, while its rough crags, bare 
rocks and desolate aspect make it more terrible 
still. . . . He sees the glory of God which 
even the apostles saw not, save in the desert. 
He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but 
he has enrolled his name in the new city. Gar- 
ments of sackcloth disfigure his limbs, yet so he 
will the sooner be caught up to meet Christ in 
the clouds. Round the entire island roars the 
frenzied sea, while the beetling crags along its 
winding shores resound as the billows beat against 
them. Precipitous cliflFs surround his dreadful 
abode as if it were a prison. He is careless, 
fearless, armed from head to foot in the apostles' 
armor." 

Listen to these trumpet tones as Jerome calls 
to a companion of his youth in Rome : " O des- 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« M^ W E S T 91 

ert, enamelled with the flowers of Christ ! O 
retreat, which rejoices t in the friendship of God ! 
What dost thou in the world, my brother, with 
thy soul greater than the world ? How long wilt 
thou remain in the shadow of roofs, and in the 
smoky dungeons of cities ? Believe me, I see 
here more light." 

To pass hastily over such appeals, coming from 
distant lands across the sea to stir the minds of 
the thoughtful in Rome, is to ignore one of the 
causes which produced the great exodus that fol- 
lowed. He made men see that they were living in 
a moral Sodom, and that if they would save their 
souls they must escape to the desert. The power 
of personal influence, of inspiring private letters, 
can hardly be overemphasized in studying the 
remarkable progress of asceticism. Great awaken- 
ings in the moral, as in the political or the social 
world, may be traced to the profound influence 
of individuals, whose prophetic insight and moral 
enthusiasm unfold the germ of the larger move- 
ments. There may be widespread unrest, the 
ground may be prepared for the seed, but the 
immediate cause of universal uprisings is the 



92 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

clarion call of genius. Thus Luther's was the 
voice that cried in the wilderness, inciting a vast 
host for whom centuries had been preparing. 

But Jerome's fame as a man of learning, pos- 
sessing a critical taste and a classic style of rare 
beauty and simplicity, must not blind us to the 
crowning glory of his brilliant career. He was 
above all a spiritual force. His chief appeal was 
to the conscience. He warmed the most torpid | 
hearts by the fervor of his love, and encouraged 
the most hopeless by his fiery zeal and heroic 
faith. As a promoter of monasticism, he clashed 
with the interests of an enfeebled clergy and a 
corrupt laity. Nothing could swerve him from 
his course. False monks might draw terrible 
rebukes from him, but the conviction that the soul 
could be delivered from captivity to the body 
only by mortification remained unshaken. He 
induced men to break the fetters of society that 
they might, under the more favorable circum- 
stances of solitude, wage war against their unruly 
passions. 

When parents objected to his monastic views, 
Jerome quoted the saying of Jesus respecting the 



\ 



i 



MONASTICISM /« M^ WEST 93 

renunciation of father and mother, and then said : 
" Though thy mother with flowing hair and rent 
garments, should show thee the breasts which have 
nourished thee ; though thy father should lie upon 
the threshold ; yet depart thou, treading over thy 
father, and fly with dry eyes to the standard of the 
cross. The love of God and the fear of hell easily 
rend the bonds of the household asunder. The 
Holy Scripture indeed enjoins obedience, but he 
who loves them more than Christ loses his soul." 
Jerome vividly portrays his own spiritual conflicts. 
The deserts were crowded with saintly soldiers 
battling against similar temptations, the nature of 
which is suggested by the following excerpt from 
Jerome's writings: "How often," he says, "when 
I was living in the desert, in the vast solitude which 
gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched 
by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself 
among the pleasures of Rome ! I used to sit 
alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sack- 
cloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin 
from long neglect had become black as an Ethio- 
pian's. Tears and groans were every day my 
portion ; and if drowsiness chanced to overcome 



94 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

my struggles against it, my bare bones, which hardly 
held together, clashed against the ground. Now, 
although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself 
to this prison where I had no companions but 
scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself 
amid bevies of girls. Helpless, I cast myself at 
the feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, 
and I subdued my rebellious body with weeks of 
abstinence. I remember how I often cried aloud 
all night till the break of day. I used to dread my 
cell as if it knew my thoughts, and stern and angry 
with myself, I used to make my way alone into the 
desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy 
mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my oratory ; 
there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. 
There, also, when I had shed copious tears and 
had strained my eyes to heaven, I sometimes felt 
myself among angelic hosts and sang for joy and 
gladness." 

No doubt these men were warring against nature. 
Their yielding to the temptation to obtain spiritual 
dominance by self-flagellation and fasting may be 
criticized in the light of modern Christianity. 
" Fanaticism defies nature," says F. W. Robertson, 



MONASTICISM in the WEST 95 

" Christianity refines it and respects it. Christianity 
does not denaturalize, but only sanctifies and refines 
according to the laws of nature. Christianity does 
not destroy our natural instincts, but gives them a 
higher and nobler direction." To all this I must 
assent, but, at the same time, I cannot but reve- 
rence that pure passion for holiness which led men, 
despairing of acquiring virtue in a degenerate age, 
to flee from the world and undergo such torments 
to attain their souFs ideal. The form, the method 
of their conflict was transient, the spirit and pur- 
pose eternal. All honor to them for their magnifi- 
cent and terrible struggle, which has forever exalted 
the spiritual ideal, and commanded men everywhere 
to seek first " the Kingdom of God and its right- 
eousness." 

Jerome was always fond of the classics, although 
pagan writers were not in favor with the early 
Christians. One night he dreamed he was called 
to the skies where he was soundly flogged for read- 
ing certain pagan authors. This vision interrupted 
his classical studies for a time. In later years he 
resumed his beloved Virgil ; and he vigorously 
defended himself against those who charged him 



96 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

with being a Pagan and an apostate on account of 
his love for Greek and Roman literature. If his 
admiration for Virgil was the DeviFs work, I but 
give the Devil his due when I declare that much 
of the charm of Jerome's literary productions is 
owing to the inspiration of classic models. 

Our attention must now be transferred from 
Jerome to the high-born Roman matrons, who laid 
off their silks that they might clothe themselves in 
the humble garb of the nun. As the narrative 
proceeds I shall let Jerome speak as often as pos- 
sible, that the reader may become acquainted with 
the style of those biographies and eulogies which 
were the talk of Rome, and which have been 
admired so highly by succeeding generations. 

Those who embraced monasticism in Rome did 
so in one of two ways. Some sold their posses- 
sions, adopted coarse garments, and subsisted on 
the plainest food, but they did not leave the city 
and were still to be seen upon the streets. Jerome 
writes to Pammachius : " Who would have believed 
that a last descendant of the consuls, an ornament 
of the race of Camillus, could make up his mind 
to traverse the city in the black robe of a monk. 



M O N A S T I C I S M /« //^(f W E S T 97 

and should not blush to appear thus clad in the 
midst of senators." Some of those who remained 
at Rome established a sort of retreat for their ascetic 
friends. 

But another class left Rome altogether. Some 
took up their abode on the rugged isles of the 
Adriatic or the Mediterranean. Large numbers of 
them went to the East, principally to Palestine. 
Jerome was practically the abbot of a Roman 
colony of monks and nuns. Two motives, beside 
the general ruling desire to achieve holiness, pro- 
duced this exodus to the Holy Land, which culmi- 
nated centuries later in the crusades. One was a 
desire to see the deserts and caves, the abode of 
hermits famous for piety and miracles. Jerome, as 
I have shown, invested these lonely retreats and 
strange characters with a sort of holy romance, and 
hence, faith, mingled with curiosity, led men to the 
East. Another motive was the desire to visit the 
land of the Saviour, to tread the soil consecrated 
by his labors of love, to live a life of poverty in the 
land where He had no home He could call his own. 

St. Paula was one of the women who left Rome 
and went to Palestine. The story of her life is 

7 



98 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

told in a letter designed to comfort her daughter 
Eustochium at the time of Paula's death. The 
epistle begins : "If all the members of my body- 
were to be converted into tongues, and if each of 
my limbs were to be gifted with a human voice, I 
could still do no justice to the virtues of the holy 
and venerable Paula. Of the stock of the Gracchi, 
descended from the Scipios, she yet preferred Beth- 
lehem to Rome, and left her palace glittering with 
gold to dwell in a mud cabin." Her husband was 
of royal blood and had died leaving her five children. 
At his death, she gave herself to works of charity. 
The poor and sick she wrapped in her own blankets. 
She began to tire of the receptions and other social 
duties which her position entailed upon her. While 
in this frame of mind, two Eastern bishops were 
entertained at her home during a gathering of 
ecclesiastics. They seem to have imparted the 
monastic impulse, perhaps by the rehearsal of 
monastic tales, for we are informed that at this time 
she determined to leave servants, property and 
children, in order to embrace the monastic life. 

Let us stand with her children and kinsfolk on 
the shore of the sea as they take their final farewell 



M O N A S T I C I S M /•« M^ W E S T 99 

of Paula. " The sails were set and the strokes of 
the rowers carried the vessel into the deep. On 
the shore little Toxotius stretched forth his hands 
in entreaty, while Rufina, now grown up, with 
silent sobs besought her mother to wait until she 
should be married. But still Paula's eyes were dry 
as she turned them heavenwards, and she overcame 
her love for her children by her love for God. She 
knew herself no more as a mother that she might 
approve herself a handmaid of Christ. Yet her 
heart was rent within her, and she wrestled with her 
grief as though she were being forcibly separated 
from parts of herself. The greatness of the affec- 
tion she had to overcome made all admire her 
victory the more. Though it is against the laws 
of nature, she endured this trial with unabated 
faith." 

So the vessel ploughed onward, carrying the 
mother who thought she was honoring God and 
attaining the true end of being through ruthless 
strangling of maternal love. She visited Syria and 
Egypt and the islands of Ponta and Cyprus. At 
the feet of the hermit fathers she begged their 
blessing and tried to emulate the virtues she 



loo MONKS and MONASTERIES 

believed they possessed. At Jerusalem she fell 
upon her face and kissed the stone before the 
sepulcher. " What tears she shed, what groans 
she uttered, what grief she poured out all Jeru- 
salem knows ! " 

She established two monasteries at Bethlehem, 
one of which was for women. Here, with her 
daughter, she lived a life of rigid abstinence. Her 
nuns had nothing they could call their own. If 
they paid too much attention to dress Paula said, 
" A clean body and a clean dress mean an unclean 
soul." To her credit, she was more lenient with 
others than with herself. Jerome admits she went 
to excess, and prudently observes : " Difficult as it 
is to avoid extremes, the philosophers are quite 
right in their opinion that virtue is a mean and vice 
an excess, or, as we may express it in one short 
sentence, in nothing too much." Paula swept 
floors and toiled in the kitchen. She slept on the 
ground, covered by a mat of goat's hair. Her 
weeping was incessant. As she meditated over the 
Scriptures, her tears fell so profusely that her sight 
was endangered. Jerome warned her to spare her 
eyes, but she said : " I must disfigure that face 



MONASTICISM /« M^ WEST loi 

which, contrary to God's commandment, I have 
painted with rouge, white lead and antimony." 
If this be a sin against the Almighty, bear witness, 
O ye daughters of Eve ! Her love for the poor 
continued to be the motive of her great liberality. 
In fact, her giving knew no bounds. Fuller wisely 
remarks that " liberality must have banks as well as 
a stream ;" but Paula said : " My prayer is that I 
may die a beggar, leaving not a penny to my 
daughter and indebted to strangers for my winding 
sheet." Her petition was literally granted, for she 
died leaving her daughter not only without a penny 
but overwhelmed in a mass of debts. 

As Jerome approaches the description of Paula's 
death, he says : " Hitherto the wind has all been in 
my favor and my keel has smoothly ploughed 
through the heaving sea. But now my bark is 
running upon the rocks, the billows are mountain 
high, and imminent shipwreck awaits me." Yet 
Paula, like David, must go the way of all the earth. 
Surrounded by her followers chanting psalms, she 
breathed her last. An immense concourse of 
people attended her funeral. Not a single monk 
lingered in his cell. Thus, the twenty hard years 



I02 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

of self-torture for this Roman lady of culture ended 
in the rest of the grave. 

Upon her tombstone was placed this significant 
inscription : 



*« Within this tomb a child of Scipio lies, 
A daughter of the far-famed Pauline house, 
A scion of the Gracchi, of the stock 
Of Agamemnon's self, illustrious : 
Here rests the lady Paula, well beloved 
Of both her parents, with Eustochium 
For daughter j she the first of Roman dames 
Who hardship chose and Bethlehem for Christ. 



Another interesting character of that period was 
Marcella, a beautiful woman of illustrious lineage, 
a descendant of consuls and prefects. After a 
married life of seven years her husband died. She 
determined not to embark on the matrimonial seas 
a second time, but to devote herself to works of 
charity. Cerealis, an old man, but of consular 
rank, offered her his fortune that he might consider 
her less his wife than his daughter. "Had I a wish 
to marry," was her noble reply, " I should look for 
a husband and not for an inheritance." Disdaining 
all enticements to remain in society, she began her 



MONASTICISM /•« //^^ WEST 103 

monastic career with joy and turned her home into 
a retreat for women who, like herself, wished to 
retire from the world. It is not known just what 
rules governed their relations, but they employed 
the time in moderate fasting, prayers and alms- 
giving. 

Marcella lavished her wealth upon the poor. 
Jerome praises her philanthropic labors thus : 
*' Our widow*s clothing was meant to keep out the 
cold and not to show her figure. She stored her 
money in the stomachs of the poor rather than to 
keep it at her own disposal." Seldom seen upon 
the streets, she remained at home, surrounded by 
virgins and widows, obedient and loving to her 
mother. Among the high-born women it was 
regarded as degrading to assume the costume of 
the nun, but she bore the scorn of her social 
equals with humility and grace. 

This quiet and useful life was rudely and abruptly 
ended by a dreadful catastrophe. Alaric the Goth 
had seized and sacked Rome. The world stood 
aghast. The sad news reached Jerome in his cell at 
Bethlehem, who expressed his sorrow in forceful 
language : " My voice sticks in my throat ; and as 



I04 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The city 
which has taken the whole world is itself taken." 
Rude barbarians invaded the sanctity of Marcella*s 
retreat. They demanded her gold, but she pointed 
to the coarse dress she wore to show them she had 
no buried treasures. They did not believe her, and 
cruelly beat her with cudgels. A few days after the 
saintly heroine of righteousness went to her long 
home to enjoy richly-merited rest and peace. 

*< Who can describe the carnage of that night ? 
What tears are equal to its agony ? 
Of ancient date a sovran city falls j 
And lifeless in its streets and houses lie 
Unnumbered bodies of its citizens. 
In many a ghastly shape doth death appear." 

Marcella and her monastic home fell in the 
general ruin, but in the words of Horace, she 
left " a monument more enduring than brass." 
Her noble life, so full of kind words and loving 
deeds, still stirs the hearts of her sisters who, while 
they may reject her ascetic ideal, will, nevertheless, 
try to emulate her noble spirit. As Jerome said of 
Paula : " By shunning glory she earned glory ; for 
glory follows virtue as its shadow; and deserting 



MONASTICISM /•» M(? WEST 105 

those who seek it, it seeks those who despise it." 
Still another woman claims our attention, — 
Fabiola, the founder of the first hospital. Lecky 
declares that " the first public hospital and the 
charity planted by that woman*s hand overspread 
the world, and will alleviate to the end of time the 
darkest anguish of humanity." She, too, was a 
widow who refused to marry again, but broke up 
her home, sold her possessions, and with the pro- 
ceeds founded a hospital into which were gathered 
the sick from the streets. She nursed the sufferers 
and washed their ulcers and wounds. No task was 
beneath her, no sacrifice of personal comfort too 
great for her love. Many helped her with their 
gold, but she gave herself. She also aided in 
establishing a home for strangers at Portus, which 
became one of the most famous inns of the time. 
Travelers from all parts of the world found a 
welcome and a shelter on landing at this port. 
When she died the roofs of Rome were crowded 
with those who watched the funeral procession. 
Psalms were chanted, and the gilded ceilings of the 
churches resounded to the music in commendation 
of her loving life and labors. 



io6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

These and other characters of like zeal and 
fortitude exemplify the spirit of the men and 
women who interested the West in monasticism. 
Much as their errors and extravagances may be 
deplored, there is no question that some of them 
were types of the loftiest Christian virtues, inspired 
by the most laudable motives. 

Noble and true are Kingsley*s words : "We may 
blame those ladies, if we will, for neglecting their 
duties. We may sneer, if we will, at their weak- 
nesses, the aristocratic pride, the spiritual vanity, 
we fancy we discover. We must confess that in 
these women the spirit of the old Roman matrons, 
which seemed to have been dead so long, flashed 
up for one splendid moment ere it sank into the 
darkness of the middle ages.*' 

Monasticism and Women 

The origin of nunneries was coeval with that of 
monasteries, and the history of female recluses runs 
parallel to that of the men. Almost every male 
order had its counterpart in some sort of a sister- 
hood. The general moral character of these female 



MONASTICISM /« M^ WEST 107 

associations was higher than that of the male 
organizations. I have confined my treatment in 
this work to the monks, but a few words may be 
said at this point concerning female ascetics. 

Hermit life was unsuited to women, but we know 
that at a very early date many of them retired to 
the seclusion of convent life. It will be recalled 
that in the biography of St. Anthony, before 
going into the desert he placed his sister in the care 
of some virgins who were living a life of abstinence, 
apart from society. It is very doubtful if any 
uniform rule governed these first religious houses, 
or if definitely organized societies appear much 
before the time of Benedict. The variations in 
the monastic order among the men were accom- 
panied by similar changes in the associations of 
women. 

The history of these sisterhoods discloses three 
interesting and noteworthy facts that merit brief 
mention : 

First, the effect of a corrupt society upon women. 
As in the case of men, women were moved to 
forsake their social duties because they were weary 
of the sensual and aimless life of Rome. Those 



io8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

were the days of elaborate toilettes, painted faces 
and blackened eyelids, of intrigues and foolish bab- 
bling. Venial faults — it may be thought — innocent 
displays of tender frailty ; but woman's nature 
demands loftier employments. A great soul craves 
occupations and recognizes obligations more in 
harmony with the true nobility of human nature. 
Rome had no monitor of the higher life until the 
monks came with their stories of heroic self-abne- 
gation and unselfish toil. The women felt the 
force and truth of Jerome's criticism of their 
trifling follies when he said : " Do not seek to 
appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor 
make yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, 
out of affectation, follow the sickly taste of married 
ladies, who now pressing their teeth together, now 
keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, 
and purposely clip their words, because they fancy 
that to pronounce them naturally is a mark of 
country breeding." 

Professor Dill is inclined to discount the testi- 
mony of Jerome respecting the morals of Roman 
society. He thinks Jerome exaggerated the perils 
surrounding women. He says: "The truth is 



MONASTICISM /•» M^ WEST 109 

Jerome is not only a monk but an artist in words ; 
and his horror of evil, his vivid imagination, and 
his passion for literary effect, occasionally carry him 
beyond the region of sober fact. There was much 
to amend in the morals of the Roman world. But 
we must not take the leader of a great moral 
reformation as a cool and dispassionate observer." 
But this observation amounts to nothing more than 
a cautionary word against mistaking evils common 
to all times for special symptoms of excessive 
immorality. Professor Dill practically concedes 
the truthfulness of contemporary witnesses, includ- 
ing Jerome, when he says : " Yet, after all allow- 
ances, the picture is not a pleasant one. We feel 
that we are far away from the simple, unworldly 
devotion of the freedmen and obscure toilers whose 
existence was hardly known to the great world 
before the age of the Antonines, and who lived in 
the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and in 
constant expectation of the coming of their Lord. 
The triumphant Church, which has brought Pagan- 
ism to its knees, is very different from the Church 
of the catacombs and the persecutions." The 
picture which Jerome draws of the Roman women 



no MONKS and MONASTERIES 

is indeed repulsive, and Professor Dill would gladly 
believe it to be exaggerated, but, nevertheless, he 
thinks that " if the priesthood, with its enormous 
influence, was so corrupt, it is only probable that it 
debased the sex which is always most under clerical 
influence." 

But far graver charges cling to the memories of 
the Roman women. Crime darkened every house- 
hold. The Roman lady was cruel and impure. 
She delighted in the blood of gladiators and in 
illicit love. Roman law at this time permitted 
women to hold and to control large estates, and it 
became a fad for these patrician ladies to marry 
poor men, so that they might have their husbands 
within their power. All sorts of alliances could 
then be formed, and if their husbands remon- 
strated, they, holding the purse strings, were able 
to say : ^' If you don*t like it you can leave." 
A profligate himself, the husband usually kept his 
counsel, and as a reward, dwelt in a palace. 
'* When the Roman matrons became the equal 
and voluntary companions of their lords," says 
Gibbon, " a new jurisprudence was introduced, 
that marriage, like other partnerships, might be dis- 



MONASTICISM /« M(? WEST iii 

solved by the abdication of one of the associates/' 
I have but touched the fringe of a veil I will not 
lift ; but it is easy to understand why those women 
who cherished noble sentiments welcomed the 
monastic life as a pathway of escape from scenes 
and customs from which their better natures recoiled 
in horror. 

Secondly, the fine quality of mercy that distin- 
guishes woman's character deserves recognition. 
Even though she retired to a convent, she could 
not become so forgetful of her fellow creatures as 
her male companions. From the very beginning 
we observe that she was more unselfish in her 
asceticism than they. It is true the monk forsook 
all, and to that extent was self-sacrificing, but in his 
desire for his own salvation, he was prone to neglect 
every one else. The monk's ministrations were 
too often confined to those who came to him, but 
the nun went forth to heal the diseased and to bind 
up the broken-hearted. As soon as she embraced 
the monastic life we read of hospitals. The desire 
for salvation drove man into the desert ; a Christ- 
like mercy and divine sympathy kept his sister by 
the couch of pain. 



112 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Lastly, a word remains to be said touching the 
question of marriage. At first, the nun sometimes 
entered the marriage state, and, of course, left the 
convent ; but, beginning with Basil, this practice 
was condemned, and irrevocable vows were exacted. 
In 407, Innocent L closed even the door of peni- 
tence and forgiveness to those who broke their 
vows and married. 

Widows and virgins alike assumed the veil. 
Marriage itself was not despised, because the 
monastic life was only for those who sought a 
higher type of piety than, it was supposed, could 
be attained amid the ordinary conditions of life. 
But marriage, as well as other so-called secular 
relations, was eschewed by those who wished to 
make their salvation sure. Jerome says : " I praise 
wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is because they 
give me virgins ; I gather the rose from the thorns, 
the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell." 
He therefore tolerated marriage among people 
contented with ordinary religious attainments, but 
he thought it incompatible with true holiness. 
Augustine admitted that the mother and her 
daughter may be both in heaven, but one a bright 



MONASTICISM /•« /^d- WEST 113 

and the other a dim star. Some writers, as Helvi- 

dius, opposed this view and maintained that there 

was no special virtue in an unmarried life ; that 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also the mother 

of other children, and as such was an example of 

Christian virtue. Jerome brought out his guns 

and poured hot shot into the enemies' camp. In 

the course of his answer, which contained many 

intolerant and acrimonious statements, he drew a 

comparison between the married and the unmarried 

state. It is interesting because it reflects the 

opinions of those who disparaged marriage, and 

reveals the character of the principles which the 

early Fathers advocated. It is very evident from 

this letter against Helvidius that Jerome regarded 

all secular duties as interfering with the pursuit of 

the highest virtue. 

" Do you think," he says, '' there is no difference 

between one who spends her time in prayer and 

fasting, and one who must, at her husband's 

approach, make up her countenance, walk with a 

mincing gait, and feign a show of endearment? 

The virgin aims to appear less comely ; she will 

wrong herself so as to hide her natural attractions. 
8 



114 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

The married woman has the paint laid on before 
her mirror, and, to the insult of her Maker, strives 
to acquire something more than her natural beauty. 
Then come the prattling of infants, the noisy 
household, children watching for her word and 
waiting for her kiss, the reckoning up of expenses, 
the preparation to meet the outlay. On one side 
you will see a company of cooks, girded for the 
onslaught and attacking the meat; there you may 
hear the hum of a multitude of weavers. Mean- 
while a message is delivered that her husband and 
his friends have arrived. The wife, like a swallow, 
flies all over the house. She has to see to every- 
thing. Is the sofa smooth ? Is the pavement 
swept ? Are the flowers in the cup ? Is dinner 
ready ? Tell me, pray, amid all this, is there room 
for the thought of God ? '* 

Such was Roman married life as it appeared to 
Jerome. The very duties and blessings that we 
consider the glory of the family he despised. I will 
return to his views later, but it is interesting to note 
the absence at this period, of the modern and true 
idea that God may be served in the performance of 
household and other secular duties. Women fled 



MONASTICISM /■« />z^ WEST 115 

from such occupations in those days that they might 
be religious. The disagreeable fact of Peter^s mar- 
riage was overcome by the assertion that he must 
have washed away the stain of his married life by 
the blood of his martyrdom. Such extreme views 
arose partly as a reaction from and a protest 
against the dominant corruption, a state of affairs 
in which happy and holy marriages were rare. 

The Spread of Monasticism in Europe 

Much more might be said of monastic life in 
Rome, were it not now necessary to treat of the 
spread of monasticism in Europe. There are many 
noble characters whom we ought to know, such 
as Ambrose, one of Christendom's greatest bishops, 
who led a life of poverty and strict abstinence, like 
his sister Marcella, whom we have met. He it 
was, of whom the Emperor Theodosius said : " I 
have met a man who has told me the truth." Well 
might he so declare, for Ambrose refused him 
admission to the church at Milan, because his 
hands were red with the blood of the murdered, 
and succeeded in persuading him to submit to dis- 



ii6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

cipline. To Ambrose may be applied the words 
which Gibbon wrote of Gregory Nazianzen : " The 
title of Saint has been added to his name, but the 
tenderness of his heart and the elegance of his 
genius reflect a more pleasing luster on his 
memory." 

The story of John, surnamed Chrysostom, who 
was born at Antioch, in 347, is exceedingly inter- 
esting. He was a young lawyer, who entered the 
priesthood after his baptism. He at once set his 
heart on the monastic life, but his mother took him 
to her chamber, and, by the bed where she had 
given him birth, besought him in fear, not to for- 
sake her. " My son," she said in substance, "my 
only comfort in the midst of the miseries of this 
earthly life is to see thee constantly, and to behold 
in thy traits the faithful image of my beloved 
husband, who is no more. When you have buried 
me and joined my ashes with those of your father, 
nothing will then prevent you from retiring into 
the monastic life. But so long as I breathe, sup- 
port me by your presence, and do not draw down 
upon you the wrath of God by bringing such evils 
upon me who have given you no offence." This 



MONASTICISM /« Ml? WEST 117 

singularly tender petition was granted, but Chrysos- 
torn turned his home into a monastery, slept on the 
bare floor, ate little and seldom, and prayed much 
by day and by night. 

After his mother's death Chrysostom enjoyed the 
seclusion of a monastic solitude for six years, but 
impairing his health by excessive self-mortification 
he returned to Antioch in 380. He rapidly rose to 
a position of commanding influence in the church. 
His peerless oratorical and literary gifts were 
employed in elevating the ascetic ideal and in 
unsparing denunciations of the worldly religion 
of the imperial court. He incurred the furious 
hatred of the young and beautiful Empress 
Eudoxia, who united her influence with that of 
the ambitious Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexan- 
dria, and Chrysostom was banished from Constan- 
tinople, but died on his way to the remote desert 
of Pity us. His powerful sermons and valuable 
writings contributed in no small degree to the 
spread of monasticism among the Christians of 
his time. 

Then there was Augustine, the greatest thinker 
since Plato. "We shall meet him/* says SchaflF, 



ii8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

''alike on the broad highways and the narrow 
foot-paths, on the giddy Alpine heights and in the 
awful depths of speculation, wherever philosophical 
thinkers before him or after him have trod." He, 
too, like all the other leaders of thought in his 
time, was ascetic in his habits. Although he lived 
and labored for thirty-eight years at Hippo, a 
Numidian city about two hundred miles west of 
Carthage, in Africa, Augustine was regarded as the 
intellectual head not only of North Africa but of 
Western Christianity. He gathered his clergy 
into a college of priests, with a community of 
goods, thus approaching as closely to the regular 
monastic life as was possible to secular clergymen. 
He established religious houses and wrote a set of 
rules, consisting of twenty-four articles, for the 
government of monasteries. These rules were 
superseded by those of Benedict, but they were 
resuscitated under Charlemagne and reappeared in 
the famous Austin Canons of the eleventh century. 
Little did Augustine think that a thousand years 
later an Augustinian monk — Luther — would aban- 
don his order to become the founder of modern 
Protestantism. 



MONASTICISM /» M^ WEST 119 

Augustine published a celebrated essay, — " On 
the Labor of Monks," — in which he pointed out 
the dangers of monachism, condemned its abuses, 
and ended by sighing for the quiet life of the monk 
who divided his day between labor, reading and 
prayer, whilst he himself spent his years amid the 
noisy throng and the perplexities of his episcopate. 

These men, and many others, did much to further 
monasticism. But we must now leave sunny Africa 
and journey northward through Gaul into the land 
of the hardy Britons and Scots. 

Athanasius, the same weary exile whom we have 
encountered in Egypt and in Rome, had been 
banished by Constantine to Treves, in ^3^' ^^ 
346 and 349 he again visited Gaul. He told the 
same story of Anthony and the Egyptian hermits 
with similar results. 

The most renowned ecclesiastic of the Galilean 
church, whose name is most intimately associated 
with the spread of monasticism in Western Europe, 
before the days of Benedict, was Saint Martin of 
Tours. He lived about the years 316-396 A. D. 
The chronicle of his life is by no means trust- 
worthy, but that is essential neither to popularity 



I20 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

nor saintship. Only let a Severus describe his life 
and miracles in glowing rhetoric and fantastic legend 
and the people will believe it, pronouncing him 
greatest among the great, the mightiest miracle- 
worker of that miracle-working age. 

Martin was a soldier three years, against his will, 
under Constantine. One bleak winter day he cut 
his white military coat in two with his sword and 
clothed a beggar with half of it. That night he 
heard Jesus address the angels : " Martin, as yet 
only a catechumen, has clothed me with his gar- 
ment.*' After leaving the army he became a 
hermit, and, subsequently, bishop of Tours. He 
lived for years just outside of Tours in a cell 
made of interlaced branches. His monks dwelt 
around him in caves cut out of scarped rocks, 
overlooking a beautiful stream. They were clad 
in camel's hair and lived on a diet of brown bread, 
sleeping on a straw couch. 

But Martin's monks did not take altogether 
kindly to their mode of life. Severus records an 
amusing story of their rebellion against the meager 
allowance of food. The Egyptian could exist on a 
few figs a day. But these rude Gauls, just emerg- 



MONASTICISM /V^ M^ WEST 121 

ing out of barbarism, were accustomed to devour 
great slices of roasted meat and to drink deep 
draughts of beer. Such sturdy children of the 
northern forests naturally disdained dainty morsels 
of barley bread and small potations of wine. True, 
Athanasius had said, " Fasting is the food of 
angels,'' but these ascetic novices, in their per- 
plexity, could only say : " We are accused of glut- 
tony ; but we are Gauls ; it is ridiculous and cruel 
to make us live like angels ; we are not angels ; 
once more, we are only Gauls." Their complaint 
comes down to us as a pathetic but humorous 
protest of common sense against ascetic fanaticism ; 
or, regarded in another light, it may be considered 
as additional evidence of the depravity of the 
natural man. 

In spite of all complaints, however, Martin did 
not abate the severity of his discipline. As a bishop 
he pushed his monastic system into all the sur- 
rounding country. His zeal knew no bounds, 
and his strength seemed inexhaustible. " No one 
ever saw him either gloomy or merry," remarks 
his biographer. Amid many embarrassments and 
difficulties he was ever the same, with a countenance 



122 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

full of heavenly serenity. He was a great miracle- 
worker — that isj if everything recorded of him is 
true. He cast out demons and healed the sick ; 
he had strange visions of angels and demons, and, 
wonderful to relate, thrice he raised bodies from the 
dead. 

But all conquerors are at last vanquished by the 
angel of death, and Martin passed into the com- 
pany of the heavenly host and the category of 
saints. Two thousand monks attended his funeral. 
His fame spread all over Europe. Tradition tells 
us he was the uncle of Saint Patrick of Ireland. 
Churches were dedicated to him in France, Ger- 
many, Scotland and England. The festival of his 
birth is celebrated on the eleventh of November. 
In Scotland this day still marks the winter term, 
which is called Martinmas. Saint Martin's shrine 
was one of the most famous of the middle ages, 
and was noted for its wonderful cures. No saint is 
held, even now, in higher veneration by the French 
Catholic. 

It is not known when the institution was planted 
in Spain, but in 380 the council of Saragossa for- 
bade priests to assume monkish habits. Germany 



MONASTICISM /•« M^ WEST 123 

received the institution some time in the fifth cen- 
tury. The introduction of Christianity as well as 
of monasticism into the British Isles is shrouded 
in darkness. A few jewels of fact may be gathered 
from the legendary rubbish. It is probable that 
before the days of Benedict, Saint Patrick, inde- 
pendently of Rome, established monasteries in 
Ireland and preached the gospel there ; and, 
without doubt, before the birth of Benedict of 
Nursia, there were monks and monasteries in 
Great Britain. The monastery of Bangor is said 
to have been founded about 450 A. D. 

It is probable that Christianity was introduced 
into Britain before the close of the second century, 
and that monasticism arose some time in the fifth 
century. Tertullian, about the beginning of the 
third century, boasts that Christianity had con- 
quered places in Britain where the Roman arms 
could not penetrate. Origen claimed that the 
power of the Savior was manifest in Britain as well 
as in Muritania. The earliest notice we have of 
a British church occurs in the writings of the 
Venerable Bede (673-735 ^' ^0? ^ monk whose 
numerous and valuable works on English history 



124 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

entitle him to the praise of being " the greatest 
Hterary benefactor this or any other nation has 
produced." He informs us that a British king — 
Lucius — embraced Christianity during the reign of 
the Emperor AureHus, and that missionaries were 
sent from Rome to Britain about that time. 
Lingard says the story is suspicious, since "we 
know not from what source Bede, at the distance 
of five centuries, derived his information." It 
seems quite likely that there must have been some 
Christians among the Roman soldiers or civil 
officials who lived in Britain during the Roman 
occupation of the country. The whole problem 
has been the theme of so much controversy, how- 
ever, that a fuller discussion is reserved for the 
next chapter. 

'Disorders and Oppositions 

But was there no protest against the progress of 
these ascetic teachings ? Did the monastic institu- 
tion command the unanimous approval of the 
church from the outset ? There were many and 
strong outcries against the monks, but they were 



MONASTICISM /> M^ WEST 125 

quickly silenced by the counter-shouts of praise. 
Even when rebellion against the system seemed 
formidable, it was popular nevertheless. The 
lifted hand was quickly struck down, and voices 
of opposition suddenly hushed. Like a mighty 
flood the movement swept on, — kings, when so 
inclined, being powerless to stop it. As Paula 
was carried fainting from the funeral procession of 
Blaesilla, her daughter, whispers such as these were 
audible in the crowd : " Is not this what we have 
often said ? She weeps for her daughter, killed with 
fasting. How long must we refrain from driving 
these detestable monks out of Rome ? Why do 
we not stone them or hurl them into the Tiber? 
They have misled this unhappy mother ; that she 
is not a nun from choice is clear. No heathen 
mother ever wept for her children as she does for 
Blaesilla.'' And this is Paula, who, choked with 
grief, refused to weep when she sailed from her 
children for the far East ! 

Unhappily, history is often too dignified to retail 
the conversations of the dinner-table and the gossip 
of private life. But this narrative indicates that 
in many a Roman family the monk was feared. 



126 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

despised and hated. Sometimes everyday murmurs 
found their way into literature and so passed to 
posterity. Rutilius, the Pagan poet, as he sails 
before a hermit isle in the Mediterranean, exclaims : ~~ 
" Behold, Capraria rises before us ; that isle is fulP 
of wretches, enemies of light. I detest these rocks, 
scene of a recent shipwreck." He then goes on 
to declare that a young and rich friend, impelled by 
the furies, had fled from men and gods to a living 
tomb, and was now decaying in that foul retreat. 
This was no uncommon opinion. But contrast it 
with what Ambrose said of those same isles : *^ It 
is there in these isles, thrown down by God like a 
collar of pearls upon the sea, that those who would 
escape from the charms of dissipation find refuge. 
Nothing here disturbs their peace, all access is 
closed to the wild passions of the world. The 
mysterious sound of waves mingles with the chant 
of hymns ; and, while the waters break upon the 
shores of these happy isles with a gentle murmur, 
the peaceful accents of the choir of the elect ascend 
toward Heaven from their bosom." No wonder 
the Milanese ladies guarded their daughters against 
this theological poet. 



MONASTICISM /« M^ WEST 127 

Even among the Christians there were hostile as 
well as friendly critics of monasticism ; Jovinian, 
whom Neander compares to Luther, is a type 
of the former. Although a monk himself, he 
disputed the thesis that any merit lay in celibacy, 
fasting or poverty. He opposed the worship of 
saints and relics, and believed that one might retain 
possession of his property and make good use of 
it. He assailed the dissolute monks and claimed 
that many of Rome's noblest young men and 
women were withdrawn from a life of usefulness 
into the desert. He held that there was really 
but one class of Christians, namely, those who 
had faith in Christ, and that a monk could be no 
more. But Jovinian was far in advance of his age, 
and it was many years before the truth of his view 
gained any considerable recognition. He was 
severely attacked by Jerome, who called him a 
Christian Epicurean, and was condemned as a 
heretic by a synod at Milan, in 390. Thus the 
reformers were crushed for centuries. The Pa*- 
Emperor, Julian, and the Christian, Valens 
tried in vain to resist the emigration into t' 
Thousands fled, in times of peril to & 



128 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

their civil and military duties, but the emperors 
were powerless to prevent the exodus. 

That there were grounds for complaint against 
the m.onks we may know from the charges made 
even by those who favored the system. Jerome, 
Ambrose, Augustine, and in fact almost every one 
of the Fathers tried to correct the growing dis- 
orders. We learn from them that many fled from 
society, not to become holy, but to escape slavery 
and famine ; and that many were lazy and immoral. 
Their " shaven heads lied to God." Avarice, 
ambition, or cowardice ruled hearts that should 
have been actuated by a love of poverty, self- 
sacrifice or courage. " Quite recently,'* says Jerome, 
''we have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of 
Croesus brought to light by a monk's death, and a 
city's alms collected for the poor, left by will to his 
sons and successors." 

Many monks traveled from place to place selling 
sham relics. Augustine wrote against " those 
hypocrites who, in the dress of monks, wander 
about the provinces carrying pretended relics, 
amulets, preservatives, and expecting alms to feed 
their lucrative poverty and recompense their pre- 



MONASTICISM /« />^^ WEST 129 

tended virtue/' It is to the credit of the Fathers 
of the church that they boldly and earnestly 
rebuked the vices of the monks and tried to purge 
the monastic system of its impurities. 

But the church sanctioned the monastic move- 
ment. She could not have done anything else. 
" It is one of the most striking occurrences in 
history," says Harnack, "that the church, exactly 
at the time when she was developing more and 
more into a legal institution and a sacramental 
establishment, outlined a Christian life-ideal which 
was incapable of realization within her bounds, but 
only alongside of her. The more she affiliated 
herself with the world, the higher and more super- 
human did she make her ideal." 

It is also noteworthy that this " life-ideal " seems 

to have led, inevitably, to fanaticism and other 

excesses, so that even at this early date there was 

^nch occasion for alarm. Gross immorality was 

I. -closed as well as luminous purity ; indolence 

• rA laziness as well as the love of sacrifice and 

. So we shall find it down through the cen- 

es. " The East had few great men," says 

' Iman, "many madmen; the West, madmen 



I30 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

enough, but still very many, many great men." 
We have met some madmen and some great men. 
We shall meet more of each type. 

After 450 A. D., monasticism suffered an eclipse 
for over half a century. It seemed as if the 
Western institution was destined to end in that 
imbecility and failure which overtook the Eastern 
system. But there came a man who infused new 
life into the monastic body. He systematized its 
scattered principles and concentrated the energies 
of the wandering and unorganized monks. 

Our next visit will be to the mountain home of 
this renowned character, fifty miles to the west 
of Rome. " A single monk," says Montalembert, 
" is about to form there a center of spiritual 
virtue, and to light it up with a splendor destined 
to shine over regenerated Europe for ten centuries 
to come." 



Ill 

rHE BENEDICTINES 

SAINT BENEDICT, the founder of the 
famous monastic order that bears his 
name, was born at Nursia, about 480 
A. D. His parents, who were wealthy, 
intended to give him a liberal education ; but 
their plans were defeated, for at fifteen years of 
age Benedict renounced his family and fortune, 
and fled from his school life in Rome. The vice 
of the city shocked and disgusted him. He would 
rather be ignorant and holy, than educated and 
wicked. On his way into the mountains, he met a 
monk named Romanus, — the spot is marked by the 
chapel of Santa Crocella, — who gave him a hair- 
cloth shirt and a monastic dress of skins. Con- 
tinuing his journey with Romanus, the youthful 
ascetic discovered a sunless cave in the desert of 
Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome. Into this 

131 



132 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

cell he climbed, and in it he lived three years. It 
was so inaccessible that Romanus had to lower his 
food to him by a rope, to which was attached a bell 
to call him from his devotions. Once the Devil 
threw a stone at the rope and broke it. 

But Benedict's bodily escape from the wicked- 
ness of Rome did not secure his spiritual freedom. 
" There was a certain lady of thin, airy shape, who 
was very active in this solemnity ; her name was 
Fancy.'* Time and again, he revisited his old 
haunts, borne on the wings of his imagination. 
The face of a beautiful young girl of previous 
acquaintance constantly appeared before him. He 
was about to yield to the temptation and to return, 
when, summoning all his strength, he made one 
mighty effort to dispel the illusion forever. Divest- 
ing himself of his clothes, he rolled his naked body 
among the thorn-bushes near his cave. It was 
drastic treatment, but it seems to have rid his mind 
effectually of disturbing fancies. This singular self- 
punishment was used by Godric, the Welsh saint, 
in the twelfth century. " Failing to subdue his 
rebellious flesh by this method, he buried a cask 
in the earthen floor of his cell, filled it with water 



r^(? BENEDICTINES 133 

and fitted it with a cover, and in this receptacle 
he shut himself up whenever he felt the titillations 
of desire. In this manner, varied by occasionally 
passing the night up to his chin in a river, of which 
he had broken the ice, he finally succeeded in 
mastering his fiery nature." 

One day some peasants discovered Benedict at 
the entrance of his cave. Deceived by his savage 
appearance, they mistook him for a wild beast, but 
the supposed wolf proving to be a saint, they fell 
down and reverenced him. 

The fame of the young ascetic attracted throngs 
of hermits, who took up their abodes near his cell. 
After a time monasteries were established, and 
Benedict was persuaded to become an abbot in one 
of them. His strictness provoked much opposi- 
tion among the monks, resulting in carefully-laid 
plots to compass the moral ruin of their spiritual 
guide. An attempt to poison him was defeated by 
a miraculous interposition, and Benedict escaped to 
a solitary retreat. 

Again the moral hero became an abbot, and 
again the severity of his discipline was resented. 
This time a wicked and jealous priest sought to 



134 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

entrap the saint by turning into a garden in 
which he was accustomed to walk seven young 
girls of exquisite physical charms. When Benedict 
encountered this temptation, he fled from the 
scene and retired to a picturesque mountain — the 
renowned Monte Cassino. Let Montalembert 
describe this celebrated spot among the western 
Apennines : " At the foot of this rock Benedict 
found an amphitheatre of the time of the Caesars, 
amidst the ruins of the town of Casinum, which 
the most learned and pious of Romans, Varro, that 
pagan Benedictine, whose memory and knowledge 
the sons of Benedict took pleasure in honoring, 
had rendered illustrious. From the summit the 
prospect extended on one side towards Arpinum, 
where the prince of Roman orators was born, and 
on the other towards Aquinum, already celebrated 
as the birthplace of Juvenal. . . . It was 
amidst those noble recollections, this solemn nature, 
and upon that predestinated height, that the patri- 
arch of the monks of the West founded the capital 
of the monastic order." 

In the year 5^9 a great stronghold of Paganism 
in these wild regions gave way to Benedict's faith. 



r/7^ BENEDICTINES 135 

Upon the ruins of a temple to Apollo, and in a 
grove sacred to Venus, arose the model of Western 
monasticism, — the cloister of Monte Cassino, which 
was to shine resplendent for a thousand years. The 
limitations of my purpose will prevent me from 
following in detail the fortunes of this renowned 
retreat, but it may not be out of place to glance at 
its subsequent history. 

Monte Cassino is located three and a half miles 
to the northeast of the town of Cassino, midway 
betv/een Rome and Naples. About 589 A. D. 
the Lombards destroyed the buildings, but the 
monks escaped to Rome, in fulfilment, so it is 
claimed, of a prophecy uttered by Benedict. It 
lay in ruins until restored by Gregory II. in 719, 
only to be burned in 884 by the Saracens ; seventy 
years later it was again rebuilt. It afterwards passed 
through a variety of calamities, and was consecrated, 
for the third time, by Benedict XII., in 1729. 
Longfellow quotes a writer for the London Daily 
News as saying: "There is scarcely a pope or 
emperor of importance who has not been personally 
connected with its history. From its mountain 
crag it has seen Goths, Lombards, Saracens, Nor- 



136 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

mans, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, scour and 
devastate the land which, through all modern his- 
tory, has attracted every invader." 

It was enriched by popes, emperors and princes. 
In its palmy days the abbot was the first baron in 
the realm, and commanded over four hundred towns 
and villages. In 1866, it shared the fate of all the 
monasteries of Italy. It still stands upon the 
summit of the mountain, and can be seen by the 
traveler from the railway in the valley. At present 
it serves as a Catholic seminary with about two 
hundred students. It contains a spacious church, 
richly ornamented with marble, mosaics and paint- 
ings. It has also a famous library which, in spite 
of bad usage, is still immensely valuable. Boccaccio 
made a visit to the place, and when he saw the 
precious books so vilely mutilated, he departed in 
tears, exclaiming : " Now, therefore, O scholar, 
rack thy brains in the making of books ! '* The 
library contains about twenty thousand volumes, and 
about thirty-five thousand popes' bulls, diplomas and 
charters. There are also about a thousand manu- 
scripts, some of which are of priceless value, as they 
date from the sixth century downward, and consist 



r.^^ BENEDICTINES 137 

of ancient Bibles and important medieval literature. 
Benedict survived the founding of this monastery 
fourteen years. His time was occupied in estab- 
lishing other cloisters, perfecting his rule, and 
preaching. Many stories are related of his power 
over the hearts of the untamed barbarians. Gal©a 
the Goth, out on a marauding expedition, demanded 
a peasant to give him his treasures. The peasant, 
thinking to escape, said he had committed them 
to the keeping of Benedict. Galea immediately 
ordered him to be bound on a horse and conducted 
to the saint. Benedict was seated at the gateway 
reading when Galea and his prisoner arrived. 
Looking up from his book he fastened his eyes 
upon the poor peasant, who was immediately loosed 
from his bonds. The astonished Galea, awed by 
this miracle, fell at the feet of the abbot, and, 
instead of demanding gold, supplicated his blessing. 
Once a boy was drowning, and, at the command of 
Benedict, St. Maur, a wealthy young Roman, who 
had turned monk, walked safely out upon the water 
and rescued the lad. Gregory also tells us many 
stories of miraculous healing, and of one resurrec- 
tion from the dead. 



138 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Benedict's last days were linked with a touching 
incident. His sister^ Scholastica, presided over a 
convent near his own. They met once a year. 
On his last visit to her, Scholastica begged him to 
remain and " speak of the joys of Heaven till the 
morning." But Benedict would not listen ; he 
must return. His sister then buried her face in 
her hands weeping and praying. Suddenly the sky 
was overcast with clouds, and a terrific storm burst 
upon the mountains, which prevented her brother's 
return. Three days later Benedict saw the soul of 
his sister entering heaven. On March 21, 543, a 
short time after his sister's death, two monks beheld 
a shining pathway of stars over which the soul of 
Benedict passed from Monte Cassino to heaven. 
Such, in brief, is the story preserved for us in his 
biography by the celebrated patron of monasticism, 
Pope Gregory L 

The Rules of Benedict 

The rules, regulae^ of St. Benedict, are worthy 
of special consideration, since they constitute the 
real foundation of his success and of his fame. 



r/z^ BENEDICTINES 139 

His order was by far the most important monastic 
brotherhood until the thirteenth century. Nearly 
all the other orders which sprang up during this 
interval were based upon Benedictine rules^ and 
were really attempts to reform the monastic system 
on the basis of Benedict's original practice. Other 
monks lived austere lives and worked miracles, 
and some of them formulated rules, but it is to 
Benedict and his rules that we must look for the 
code of Western monachism. " By a strange 
parallelism/* says Putnam, " almost in the very 
year in which the great Emperor Justinian was 
codifying the results of seven centuries of Roman 
secular legislation for the benefit of the judges and 
the statesmen of the new Europe, Benedict, on 
his lonely mountain-top, was composing his code 
for the regulation of the daily life of the great 
civilizers of Europe for seven centuries to come." 
The rules consist of a preface and seventy-three 
chapters. The prologue defines the classes of 
monks, and explains the aim of the " school of divine 
servitude," as Benedict described his monastery. 
The following is a partial list of the subjects con- 
sidered : The character of an abbot, silence, maxims 



I40 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

for good works, humility, directions as to divine 
service, rules for dormitories, penalties, duties of 
various monastic officers, poverty, care of the sick, 
daily rations of food and drink, hours for meals, 
fasting, entertainment of guests, and dress. They 
close with the statement that the Benedictine rule 
is not offered as an ideal of perfection, or even as 
equal to the teaching of Cassian or Basil, but for 
mere beginners in the spiritual life, who may thence 
proceed further. 

The Benedictine novitiate extended over one 
year, but was subsequently increased to three. At 
the close of this period the novice was given the 
opportunity to go back into the world. If he still 
persisted in his choice, he swore before the bones 
of the saints to remain forever cut off from the rest 
of his fellow beings. If a monk left the monastery, 
or was expelled, he could return twice, but if, after 
the third admission, he severed his connection, the 
door was shut forever. 

The monk passed his time in manual labor, copy- 
ing manuscripts, reading, fasting and prayer. He 
was forbidden to receive letters, tokens or gifts, 
even from his nearest relatives, without permission 



r.^^ BENEDICTINES 141 

from the abbot. His daily food allowance was 
usually a pound of bread, a pint of wine, cider or 
ale, and sometimes fish, eggs, fruit or cheese. He 
was dressed in a black cowl. His clothing was to be 
suitable to the climate and to consist of two sets. 
He was also furnished with a straw mattress, blanket, 
quilt, pillow, knife, pen, needle, handkerchief and 
tablets. He was, in all things, to submit patiently 
to his superior, to keep silence, and to serve his turn 
in the kitchen. In the older days the monks 
changed their clothes on the occasion of a bath, 
which used to be taken four times a year. Later, 
bathing was allowed only twice a year, and the 
monks changed their clothes when they wished. 

Various punishments were employed to correct 
faults. Sometimes the offender was whipped on 
the bare shoulders with a thick rod ; others had 
to lie prostrate in the doorway of the church at each 
hour, so that the monks passed over his body on 
entering or going out. 

The monks formerly rose at two o'clock, and 
spent the day in various occupations until eight at 
night, when they retired. The following rules 
once governed St. Gregory's Monastery in Eng- 



142 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

land: "3:45 a. m. Rise. 4 a. m. Matins and 
lauds, recited ; half-hour mental prayer ; prime 
sung; prime B.V. M. recited. 6:30 a.m. Private 
study ; masses ; breakfast for those who had permis- 
sion. 8 A. M. Lectures and disputations. 10 a. m. 
Little hours B. V. M., recited ; tierce, mass, sext, 
sung. 11:30 A.M. Dinner. 12 noon. Y^on^ sung; 
vespers and compline B. V. M., recited. 12:30 
p. M. Siesta, i p. m. Hebrew or Greek lecture. 
2 p. M. Vespers sung, 2:30 p. m. Lectures and 
disputations. 4 p. m. Private study. 6 p. m. 
Supper. 6:30 p. M. Recreation. 7:30 p. m. Public 
spiritual reading ; compline sung ; matins and lauds 
B. V. M., recited ; half-hour mental prayer. 8:45 
p. m. Retire." * 

Such a routine suggests a dreary life, but that 
would depend upon the monk's temperament. 
Regularity of employment kept him healthy, and 
if he did not take his sins too much to heart, he 
was free from gloom. Hill very justly observes : 
" Whenever men obey that injunction of labor, no 
matter what their station, there is in the act the 
element of happiness, and whoever avoids that 

^Appendix, Note D. 



r^^ BENEDICTINES 143 

injunction, there is always the shadow of the unful- 
filled curse darkening their path." Thus, their 
ideal was " to subdue one's self and then to devote 
one*s self," which De Tocqueville pronounces " the 
secret of strength." How well they succeeded in 
realizing their ideal by the methods employed we 
shall see later. 

The term " order," as applied to the Bene- 
dictines, is used in a different sense from that 
which it has when used of later monastic bodies. 
Each Benedictine house was practically independent 
of every other, while the houses of the Dominicans, 
Franciscans or Jesuits were bound together under 
one head. The family idea was peculiar to the 
Benedictines. The abbot was the father, and the 
monastery was the home where the Benedictine 
was content to dwell all his life. In the later 
monastic societies the monks were constantly travel- 
ing from place to place. Taunton says : " As God 
made society to rest on the basis of the family, so 
St. Benedict saw that the spiritual family is the 
surest basis for the sanctification of the souls of his 
monks. The monastery therefore is to him what 
the ' home ' is to lay-folk. * . . From this 



144 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

family idea comes another result : the very fact 
that St. Benedict did not found an Order but only 
gave a Rule, cuts away all possibility of that 
narrowing esprit de corps which comes so easily to a 
wide-spread and highly-organized body." 

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, how- 
ever, it became necessary for the general good of 
each family to secure some kind of union. The 
Chapter then came into existence, which was a 
representative body, composed of the heads of the 
different houses and ordinary monks regularly 
appointed as delegates. To the Chapter were 
committed various matters of jurisdiction, and also 
the power of sending visitors to the different abbeys 
in the pope's name. 

Each society was ruled by an abbot, who governed 
in Christ's stead. Sometimes the members of the 
monastery were consulted, the older ones ordinarily, 
the whole congregation in important matters. But 
implicit obedience to the abbot, as the representa- 
tive of God, was demanded by the vows. 

The abbot was to be elected by the monks. 
At various periods popes and princes usurped \ ' 
power, but the monks always claimed the right as 



' rhe BENEDICTINES 145 

original privilege. Carlyle quotes Jocelin on Abbot 
Samson, who says that the monks of St. Edmunds- 
bury were compelled to submit their choice to 
Henry II., who, looking at the committee of monks 
somewhat sternly, said : " You present to me 
Samson ; I do not know him ; had it been your 
prior, whom I do know, I should have accepted 
him ; however, I will now do as you wish. But 
have a care of yourselves. By the true eyes of 
God, if you manage badly, I will be upon you.'* 

In Walter Scott's novel, " The Abbot,'' there is 
an interesting contrast drawn between the ceremonies 
attending an abbot's installation, when the monas- 
teries were in their glory, and the pitiable scenes in 
the days of their decline, when Mary Stuart was a 
prisoner in Lochleven. In the monastery of Ken- 
naquhair, which had been despoiled by the fury of 
the times, a few monks were left to mourn the 
mutilated statues and weep over the fragments of 
richly-carved Gothic pillars. Having secretly elected 
an abbot, they assembled in fear and trembling to 
invest him with the honors of his office. "In 
former times," says Scott, " this was one of the 

most splendid of the many pageants which the 
10 



146 MONKS and MONASTF 

hierarchy of Rome had devised to attract the ven- 
eration of the faithful. When the folding doors 
on such solemn occasions were thrown open, and 
the new abbot appeared on the threshold in full- 
blown dignity, with ring and mitre and dalmatique 
and crosier, his hoary standard-bearers and juvenile 
dispensers of incense preceding him, and the ven- 
erable train of monks behind him, his appearance 
was the signal for the magnificent jubilate to rise 
from the organ and the music-loft and to be joined 
by the corresponding bursts of * Alleluiah * from 
the whole assembled congregation. 

" Now all was changed. Father Ambrose stood 
on the broken steps of the high altar, barefooted, 
as was the rule, and holding in his hand his pastoral 
staff, for the gemmed ring and jewelled mitre had 
become secular spoils. No obedient vassals came, 
man after man, to make their homage and to offer 
the tribute which should provide their spiritual 
superior with palfrey and trappings. No bishop 
assisted at the solemnity to receive into the higher 
ranks of the church nobility a dignitary whose 
voice in the legislature was as potent as his ow 

We are enabled by this partially-quoted desc 



r^^ BENEDICTINES 147 

tion to imagine the importance attached to the 
election of an abbot. He became, in feudal times, 
a lord of the land, the richest man in the com- 
munity, and a tremendous power in political councils 
and parliaments. A Benedictine abbot once con- 
fessed : " My vow of poverty has given me a 
hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of 
obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign 
prince." 

No new principle seems to be disclosed by the 
Benedictine rules. The command to labor had been 
emphasized even in the monasteries of Egypt. The 
Basilian code contained a provision enforcing manual 
labor, but the work was light and insufficient to keep 
the mind from brooding. The monastery that was 
to succeed in the West must provide for men who not 
only could toil hard, but who must do so if they 
were to be kept pure and true ; it must welcome 
men accustomed to the dangerous adventures of 
pioneer life in the vast forests of the North. The 
Benedictine system met these conditions by a unique 
combination and application of well-known monastic 
principles ; by a judicious subordination of minor 
matters to essential discipline ; by bringing into 



148 MONKS and MONASTERIES. 

greater prominence the doctrine of labor ; by tem- 
pering the austerities of the cell to meet the neces- 
sities of a severe climate ; and lastly, by devising a 
scheme of life equally adaptable to the monk of 
sunny Italy and the rude Goth of the northern 
forests. 

It was the splendid fruition of many years of 
experiment amid varying results. " It shows/* says 
Schaffj " a true knowledge of human nature, the 
practical wisdom of Rome and adaptation to Western 
customs ; it combines simplicity with completeness, 
strictness with gentleness, humility with courage and 
gives the whole cloister life a fixed unity and compact 
organization, which, like the episcopate, possessed 
an unlimited versatility and power of expansion." 

'^he Struggle against Barbarism 

No institution has contributed as much to the 
amelioration of human misery or struggled as 
patiently and persistently to influence society for 
good as the Christian church. In spite of all that 
may be said against the followers of the Cross, it 
still remains true, that they have ever been foremost 



r^d' BENEDICTINES 149 

in the establishment of peace and justice among men. 

The problem that confronted the church when 
Benedict began his labors, was no less than that of 
reducing a demoralized and brutal society to law 
and order. Chaos reigned, selfishness and lust 
ruled the hearts of Rome's conquerors. The West 
was desolated by barbarians ; the East dismem- 
bered and worn out by theological controversy. 
War had ruined the commerce of the cities and 
laid waste the rural districts. Vast swamps and 
tracts of brush covered fields once beautiful with the 
products of agricultural labor. The minds of men 
were distracted by apprehensions of some frightful, 
impending calamity. The cultured Roman, the 
untutored Gothland the corrupted Christian were 
locked in th* deadly embrace of despair. "Con- 
stantly did society attempt to form itself," says 
Guizot, "constantly was it destroyed by the act of 
man, by the absence of the moral conditions under 
which alone it can exist." 

But notwithstanding failures and discouragements, 
the work of reconstructing society moved painfully 
on, and among the brave master builders was Bene- 
dict of Nursia. "He found the world, physical 



I50 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

and social, in ruins," says Cardinal Newman, " and 
his mission was to restore it in the way, — not of 
science, but of nature ; not as if setting about to do 
it ; not professing to do it by any set time, or by any 
series of strokes ; but so quietly, patiently, gradually, 
that often till the work was done, it was not known 
to be doing. It was a restoration rather than a 
visitation, correction or conversion. The new 
world he helped to create was a growth rather 
than a structure." 

But the chaos created by the irruption of the 
barbarous nations at this period seriously affected 
the moral character and influence of the clergy and 
the monks. The church seemed unequal to the 
stupendous undertaking of converting the barba- 
rians. The monks, as a class, were lawless and 
vicious. Benedict himself testifies against them, 
and declares that they were " always wandering and 
never stable ; that they obey their own appetites, 
whereunto they are enslaved." Unable to control 
their own desires by any law whatsoever, they were 
unfitted to the task before them. It was impera- 
tive, then, that unity and order should be introduced 
among the monasteries ; that some sort of a uniform 



rhe BENEDICTINES 151 

rule, adapted to the existing conditions, should be 
adopted, not only for the preservation of the 
monastic institution, but for the preparation of the 
monks for their work. Therefore, although the 
Christianity of that time was far from ideal, it was, 
nevertheless, a religion within the grasp of the 
reckless barbarians ; and subsequent events prove 
that it possessed a moral power capable of humaniz- 
ing manners, elevating the intellect, and checking 
the violent temper of the age. 

Excepting always the religious services of the 
Benedictine monks, their greatest contribution to 
civilization was literary and educational.* The 
rules of Benedict provided for two hours a day of 
reading, and it was doubtless this wise regulation 
that stimulated literary tastes, and resulted in the 
collecting of books and the reproduction of manu- 
scripts. "Wherever a Benedictine house arose, or 
a monastery of any one of the Orders, which were 
but offshoots from the Benedictine tree, books 
were multiplied and a library came into existence, 
small indeed at first, but increasing year by year, 
till the wealthier houses had gathered together col- 

*Appendix, Note E. 



152 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

lections of books that would do credit to a modern 
university/' There was great danger that the 
remains of classic literature might be destroyed in 
the general devastation of Italy. The monasteries 
rescued the literary fragments that escaped, and 
preserved them. " For a period of more than six 
centuries the safety of the literary heritage of 
Europe, — one may say of the world, — depended 
upon the scribes of a few dozen scattered mon- 
asteries." 

The literary services of the earlier monks did not 
consist in original production, but in the reproduc- 
tion and preservation of the classics. This work 
was first begun as a part of the prescribed routine 
of European monastic life in the monastery at 
Vivaria, or Viviers, Italy, which was founded by 
Cassiodorus about 539. The rules of this cloister 
were based on those of Cassian, who died in the 
early part of the fifth century. Benedict, at Monte 
Cassino, followed the example of Cassiodorus, and 
the Benedictine Order carried the work on for the 
seven succeeding centuries. 

Cassiodorus was a statesman of no mean ability, 
and for over forty years was active in the political 



r^^ BENEDICTINES 153 

circles of his time, holding high official positions 
under five: different Roman rulers. He was also 
an exceptional scholar, devoting much of his energy 
to the preservation of classic literature. His mag- 
nificent collection of manuscripts, rescued from the 
ruins of Italian libraries, "supplied material for the 
pens of thousands of monastic scribes." If we 
leave out Jerome, it is to Cassiodorus that the 
honor is due for joining learning and monasticism. 

" Thus," remarks SchafF, " that very mode of 
life, which, in its founder, Anthony, despised all 
learning, became in the course of its development 
an asylum of culture in the rough and stormy times 
of the migration and the crusades, and a conservator 
of the literary treasures of antiquity for the use of 
modern times." 

Cassiodorus, with a noble enthusiasm, inspired 
his monks to their task. He even provided lamps 
of ingenious construction, that seem to have been 
self-trimming, to aid them in their work. He 
himself set an example of literary diligence, aston- 
ishing in one of his age. 

Putnam is justified in his praises of this remark- 
able character when he declares : "It is not too 



154 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

much to say that the continuity of thought and 
civilization of the ancient world with that of the 
middle ages was due, more than to any other one 
man, to the life and labors of Cassiodorus." 

But the monk was more than a scribe and a 
collector of books, he became the chronicler and 
the school-teacher. " The records that have come 
down to us of several centuries of medieval Euro- 
pean history are due almost exclusively to the labors 
of the monastic chroniclers." A vast fund of 
information, the value of which is impaired, it is 
true, by much useless stuff, concerning medieval 
customs, laws and events, was collected by these 
unscientific historians and is now accessible to the 
student. 

At the end of the ninth century nearly all the 
monasteries of Europe conducted schools open to 
the children of the neighborhood. The character 
of the educational training of the times is not to be 
judged by modem standards. A beginning had to 
be made, and that too at a time " when neither local 
nor national governments had assumed any respon- 
sibilities in connection with elementary education, 
and when the municipalities were too ignorant, and 



77^^ BENEDICTINES 155 

in many cases too poor, to make provision for the 
education of the children/* It is therefore to the 
lasting credit of Benedict, inspired no doubt by 
the example of Cassiodorus, that he commanded 
his monks to read, encouraged literary work, and 
made provision for the education of the young. 

The Benedictines rendered a great social service 
in reclaiming deserted regions and in clearing forests. 
" The monasteries," says Maitland, " were, in those 
days of misrule and turbulence, beyond all price, 
not only as places where (it may be imperfectly, but 
better than elsewhere) God was worshipped, . . . 
but as central points whence agriculture was to 
spread over bleak hills and barren downs and 
marshy plains, and deal its bread to millions per- 
ishing with hunger and its pestilential train." 
Roman taxation and barbarian invasions had ruined 
the farmers, who left their lands and fled to swell 
the numbers of the homeless. The monk repeopled 
these abandoned but once fertile fields, and carried 
civilization still deeper into the forests. Many a 
monastery with its surrounding buildings became 
the nucleus of a modern city. The more awful the 
darkness of the forest solitudes, the more the monks 



156 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

loved it. They cut down trees in the heart of the 
wilderness, and transformed a soil bristling with 
woods and thickets into rich pastures and ploughed 
fields. They stimulated the peasantry to labor, and 
taught them many useful lessons in agriculture. 
Thus, they became an industrial, as well as a 
spiritual, agency for good. 

The habits of the monks brought them into close 
contact with nature. Even the animals became their 
friends. Numerous stories have been related of 
their v/onderful power over wild beasts and their 
conversations with the birds. "It is wonderful," 
says Bede, " that he who faithfully and loyally 
obeys the Creator of the universe, should, in his 
turn, see all the creatures obedient to his orders and 
his wishes." They lived, so we are told, in the 
most intimate relations with the animal creation. 
Squirrels leaped to their hands or hid in the folds 
of their cowls. Stags came out of the forests in 
Ireland and offered themselves to some monks who 
were ploughing, to replace the oxen carried off by 
the hunters. Wild animals stopped in their pur- 
suit of game at the command of St. Laumer. 
Birds ceased singing at the request of some monks 



r/^(f BENEDICTINES 157 

until they had chanted their evening prayer, and at 
their word the feathered songsters resumed their 
music. A swan was the daily companion of St. 
Hugh of Lincoln, and manifested its miraculous 
knowledge of his approaching death by the most 
profound melancholy. While all the details of such 
stories are not to be accepted as literally true, no 
doubt some of this poetry of monastic history rests 
upon interesting and charming facts. 

A fuller discussion of the permanent contributions 
which the monk made to civilization is reserved for 
the last chapter. I have somewhat anticipated a 
closer scrutiny of his achievements in order to pre- 
sent a clearer view of his life and labors. His 
religious duties were, perhaps, wearisome enough. 
We might tire of his monotonous chanting and 
incessant vigils, but it is gratifying to know that he 
also engaged in practical and useful employments. 
The convent became the house of industry as well as 
the temple of prayer. The forest glades echoed to 
the stroke of the axe as well as to hymns of praise. 
Yes, as Carlyle writes of the twelfth century, 
" these years were no chimerical vacuity and dream- 
land peopled with mere vaporous phantasms, but a 



158 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

green solid place, that grew corn and several other 
things. The sun shone on it, the vicissitudes of 
seasons and human fortunes. Cloth was woven 
and worn ; ditches were dug, furrowed fields 
ploughed and houses built.'* 

The Spread of the Benedictine Rule 

It is generally held that Benedict had no pre- 
sentiment of the vast historical importance of his 
system ; and that he aspired to nothing beyond 
the salvation of his own soul and those of his 
brethren. 

But the rule spread with wonderful rapidity. In 
every rich valley arose a Benedictine abbey. Britain, 
Germany, Scandinavia, France and Spain adopted 
his rule. Princes, moved by various motives, 
hastened to bestow grants of land on the inde- 
fatigable missionary who, undeterred by the wild- 
ness of the forest and the fierceness of the barbarian, 
settled in the remotest regions. In the various 
societies of the Benedictines there have been thirty- 
seven thousand monasteries and one hundred and 
fifty thousand abbots. For the space of two hun- 



r^^ BENEDICTINES 159 

dred and thirty-nine years the Benedictines governed 
the church by forty-eight popes chosen from their 
order. They boast of two hundred cardinals, seven 
thousand archbishops, fifteen thousand bishops and 
four thousand saints. The astonishing assertion is 
also made that no less than twenty emperors and 
forty-seven kings resigned their crowns to become 
Benedictine monks. Their convents claim ten 
empresses and fifty queens. Many of these earthly 
rulers retired to the seclusion of the monastery 
because their hopes had been crushed by political 
defeat, or their consciences smitten by reason of 
crime or other sins. Some were powerfully attracted 
by the heroic element of monastic life, and these 
therefore spurned the luxuries and emoluments of 
royalty, in order by personal sacrifice to achieve 
spiritual domination in this life, and to render their 
future salvation certain. But whatever the motive 
that drew queens and princes to the monastic order, 
the retirement of such large numbers of the nobility 
indicates the influence of a religious system which 
ould cope so successfully with the attractions of the 
palace and the natural passion for political dominion. 
Saint Gregory the Great, the biographer of 



i6o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Benedict, who was born at Rome in 540 A. D., 
and so was nearly contemporaneous with Benedict, 
was a zealous promoter of the monastic ideal, and 
did as much as any one to advance its ecclesiastical 
position and influence. He founded seven monas- 
teries with his paternal inheritance, and became the 
abbot of one of them. He often expressed a desire 
to escape the clamor of the world by retirement to 
a lonely cell. Inspired by the loftiest estimates of 
his holy office, he sought to reform the church in 
its spirit and life. Many of his innovations in the 
church service bordered upon a dangerous and 
glittering pomp ; but the musical world will always 
revere his memory for the famous chants that bear 
his name. 

Gregory surrounded himself with monks, and did 
everything in his power to promote their interests. 
He increased the novitiate to two years, and 
exempted certain monasteries from the control of 
the bishops. Other popes added to these exemp- 
tions, and thus widened the breach which already 
existed between the secular clergy and the monks. 
He also fixed a penalty of lifelong imprisonment 
for abandonment of the monastic life. 



r^^ BENEDICTINES i6i 

Under Gregory's direction many missionary 
enterprises were carried on, notably that of Augus- 
tine to England. The story runs that one day 
Gregory saw some men and beautiful children from 
Britain put up for sale in the market-place. Deeply 
sighing, he exclaimed: "Alas for grief! That the 
author of darkness possesses men of so bright 
countenance, and that so great grace of aspect 
bears a mind void of inward grace ! " He then 
asked the children the name of their nation. 
" Angles,'* was the reply. " It is well," he said, 
" for they have angelic faces. What is the name 
of your province ? " It was answered, " Deira." 
" Truly," he said, " De-ira-ns, drawn from anger, 
and called to the mercy of Christ. How is your 
king called ? " They answered, " ^lla, or Ella." 
Then he cried ^^ Alleluia I it behooves that the praise 
of God the Creator should be sung in those parts." 
While it is hard to accept this evidently fanciful 
story in its details, it seems quite probable that the 
sale of some English slaves in a Roman market 
drew the attention of Gregory to the needs of 
Britain. 

Some years afterwards, in 596, Gregory commis- 
II 



i62 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

sioned Augustine, prior of the monastery of St. 
Andrew's on the Celian Hill, at Rome, with forty 
companions, to preach the gospel in Britain. When 
this celebrated missionary landed on the island of 
Thanet, he found monasticism had preceded him. 
But what was the nature of this British monas- 
ticism ? On that question Rome and England are 
divided. 

The Romanist declares that no country received 
the Christian faith more directly from the Church 
of Rome than did England ; that the most careful 
study of authentic records reveals no doctrinal 
strife, no diversity of belief between the early 
British monks and the Pope of Rome ; that St. 
Patrick, of Ireland, and St. Columba, of Scotland, 
were loyal sons of their Roman mother. 

The Anglican, on the other hand, believes that 
Christianity was introduced into Britain independ- 
ently of Rome. As to the precise means employed, 
he has his choice of ten legends. He may hold 
with Lane that it is reasonable to suppose one of 
Paul's ardent converts, burning with fervent zeal, 
led the Britons to the cross. Or he may argue 
with others : " What is more natural than to 



rhe BENEDICTINES 163 

imagine that Joseph of Arimathea, driven from 
Palestine, sailed away to Britain." In proof of 
this assumption, we are shown the chapel of St. 
Joseph, the remains of the oldest Christian church, 
where the holy-thorn blossoms earlier than in any 
other part of England. Many Anglicans wisely 
regard all this as legendary. It is also held that 
St. Patrick and St. Columba were not Romanists, 
but represented a type of British Christianity, 
which, although temporarily subjected to Rome, 
yet finally threw oiF the yoke under Henry VIII. 
and reasserted its ancient independence. Still others 
declare that when Augustine was made archbishop, 
the seat of ecclesiastical authority was transferred 
from Rome to Canterbury, and the English church 
became an independent branch of the universal 
church. It was Catholic, but not Roman. 

The difficulty of ascertaining when and by whom 
Christianity was originally introduced into southern 
Britain must be apparent to every student. But 
some things may be regarded as historically certain. 
The whole country had been desolated by war when 
Augustine arrived. For a hundred and fifty years 
the brutality and ignorance of the barbarians had 



i64 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

reigned supreme. All traces of Roman civilization 
had nearly disappeared with the conquest of the 
heathen Anglo-Saxons. Whatever may be thought 
about the subsequent effects of the triumph of 
Roman Christianity, it is due to Rome to recognize 
the fact that with the coming of the Roman mis- 
sionaries religion and knowledge began a new life. 

The Anglo-Saxons had destroyed the Christian 
churches and monasteries, whose origin, as we have 
seen, is unknown. They drove away or massacred 
the priests and monks. Christianity was practically 
extirpated in those districts subject to the Germanic 
yoke. But when Augustine landed British monks 
were still to be found in various obscure parts of 
the country, principally in Ireland and Wales. 
Judging from what is known of these monks, it is 
safe to say that their habits and teachings were 
based on the traditions of an earlier Christianity, 
and that originally British Christianity was inde- 
pendent of Rome. 

The monks in Britain at the time when Augus- 
tine landed differed from the Roman monks in 
their tonsures, their liturgy, and the observance of 
Easter, although no material difference in doctrine 



r>^^ BENEDICTINES 165 

can be established. The clergy did not always 
observe the law of celibacy nor perhaps the Roman 
rules of baptism. It is also admitted, even by Cath- 
olic historians, that the British monks refused to 
acknowledge Augustine their archbishop ; that this 
question divided the royal family ; and that the 
old British church was not completely subdued 
until Henry II. conquered Ireland and Wales. 
These statements are practically supported by 
Ethelred L. Taunton, an authoritative writer, whose 
sympathy with Roman monasticism is very strong. 
He thinks that a few of the British monks sub- 
mitted to Augustine, but of the rest he says : 
'' They would not heed the call of Augustine, and 
on frivolous pretexts refused to acknowledge him." 
A large body of British monks retired to the 
monastery of Bangor, and when King Ethelfrid 
invaded the district of Wales, he slew twelve hun- 
dred of them in the open field as they were upon 
their knees praying for the success of the Britons. 
It was then that the power of the last remnants of 
Celtic or British Christianity was practically broken, 
and the Roman type henceforth gradually acquired 
the mastery. 



i66 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Montalembert says : "In no other country has 
Catholicism been persecuted with more sanguinary 
zeal ; and, at the same time, none has greater need 
of her care." While the latter observation is open 
to dispute, it is certainly true that England has 
never remained quiet under the dominion of Rome. 
Goldsmith's tribute to the English character sug- 
gests a reasonable explanation of this historic fact : 

*< Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state. 
Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, 
True to imagined right, above control. 
While even the peasant boasts those rights to scan, 
And learns to venerate himself as man." 

The fact to be remembered, as we emerge from 
these ecclesiastical quarrels and the confusions of 
this perplexing history, is that the monks were the 
intellectual and religious leaders of those days. 
They exercised a profound influence upon English 
society, and had much to do with the establishment 
of English institutions. 

But, on the other hand, the continent is indebted 
to England for the gift of many noble monks who 
served France and Germany as intellectual and 
moral guides, at a time when these countries were 



r>^^ BENEDICTINES 167 

in a state of extreme degradation. Boniface, the 
Apostle to the Germans, who is regarded by 
Neander as the Father of the German church and 
the real founder of the Christian civilization of 
Germany, was the gift of the English cloisters, and 
a native of Devonshire. Alcuin, the ecclesiastical 
prime minister of Charlemagne and the greatest 
educator of his time, was born and trained in 
England. Nearly all the leading schools of France 
were founded or improved by this celebrated monk. 
It was largely due to Alcuin*s unrivaled energy and 
splendid talents that Charlemagne was able to make 
so many and so glorious educational improvements 
in his empire. 

Notable among the men who introduced the 
Benedictine rule into England was St. Wilfred 
(634-709 A. D.), who had traveled extensively in 
France and Italy, and on his return carried the 
monastic rule into northern Britain. He also is 
credited with establishing a course of musical train- 
ing in the English monasteries. He was the most 
active prelate of his age in the founding of churches 
and monasteries, and in securing uniformity of dis- 
cipline and harmony with the Church of Rome. 



i68 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

One of the most famous monastic retreats of 
those days was the wild and lonely isle of lona, 
the Mecca of monks and the monastic capital of 
Scotland. It is a small island, three miles long and 
one broadj lying west of Scotland. Many kings 
of Scotland were crowned here on a stone which 
now forms a part of the British coronation chair. 
Its great monastery enjoyed the distinction from 
the sixth to the eighth century of being second to 
none in its widespread influence in behalf of the 
intellectual life of Europe. 

This monastery was originally founded in the 
middle of the sixth century by Columba, the 
Apostle to Caledonia, an Irish saint actively asso- 
ciated with a wonderful intellectual awakening. 
The rule of the monastery is unknown, but it is 
probable that it could not have been, at the first, 
of the Benedictine type. Columba's followers trav- 
eled as missionaries and teachers to all parts of 
Europe, and it is said, they dared to sail in their 
small boats even as far as Iceland. 

Dr. Johnson says in his " Tour to the Hebrides " : 
" We are now treading that illustrious island which 
was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions. 



r;^^ BENEDICTINES 169 

whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived 
the benefits of knowledge and the blessing of 
religion. That man is little to be envied whose 
patriotism would not gain force upon the plain 
of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow 
warmer among the ruins of lona." The mon- 
astery which Columba founded here was doubt- 
less of the same character as the establishments 
in Ireland. Many of these Celtic buildings were 
made of the branches of trees and supported by 
wooden props. It was some time before properly- 
constructed wooden churches or monasteries became 
general in these wild regions. In such rude huts 
small libraries were collected and the monks trained 
to preach. Ireland was then the center of knowl- 
edge in the North. Greek, Latin, music and such 
science as the monks possessed were taught to eager 
pupils. Copies of their manuscripts are still to be 
found all over Europe. Their schools were open 
to the rich and poor alike. The monks went from 
house to house teaching and distributing literature. 
As late as the sixteenth century, students from 
various parts of the Continent were to be found 
in these Irish schools. 



lyo MONKS and MONASTERIES 

There is an interesting story related of Columba's 
literary activities. It is said that on one occasion 
while visiting his master, Finnian, he undertook to 
make a clandestine copy of the abbot's Psalter. 
When the master learned of the fact, he indignantly 
charged Columba with theft, and demanded the 
copy which he had made, on the ground that a copy 
made without permission of the author was the 
property of the original owner, because a transcript 
is the offspring of the original work. Putnam, to 
whom I am indebted for this story, says : " As far 
as I have been able to ascertain, this is the first 
instance which occurs in the history of European 
literature of a contention for a copyright." The 
conflict for this copyright afterwards developed 
into a civil war. The copy of the Latin Psalter 
"was enshrined in the base of a portable altar as 
the national relic of the O^Donnell clan," and was 
preserved by that family for thirteen hundred years. 
It was placed on exhibition as late as 1867, in the 
museum of the Royal Irish Academy. 

Enough has now been said to enable the reader 
to understand something of the spirit and labors 
of the monks in an age characteristically bar- 



rhe BENEDICTINES 171 

baric. For fivt centuries, from the fifth to the 
tenth, the condition of Europe was deplorable. 
"It may be doubted," says an old writer, " whether 
the worst of the Caesars exceeded in dark malignity, 
or in capriciousness of vengeance, the long-haired 
kings of France." The moral sense of even the 
most saintly churchmen seems to have been blunted 
by familiarity with atrocities and crimes. Brute 
force was the common method of exercising con- 
trol and administering justice. The barbarians 
were bold and independent, but cruel and super- 
stitious. Their furious natures needed taming and 
their rude minds tutoring. Even though during 
this period churches and monasteries were raised in 
amazing numbers, yet the spirit of barbarism was 
so strong that the Christians could scarcely escape 
its influence. The power of Christianity was modi- 
fied by the nature of the people, whose characters 
it aimed to transform. The remarks of William 
Newton Clarke respecting the Christians of the 
first and second centuries are also appropriate to 
the period under review : " The people were changed 
by the new faith, but the new faith was changed by 
the people.** Christianity " made a new people. 



172 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

better than it found them, but they in turn made 
a new Christianity, with its strong points illustrated 
and confirmed in their experience, but with weak- 
ness brought in from their defects." 

Yes, the work of civilizing the Germanic nations 
was a task of herculean proportions and of tremen- 
dous significance. Out of these tribes were to be 
constructed the nations of modern Europe. To 
this important mission the monks addressed them- 
selves with such courage, patience, faith and zeal, as 
to entitle them to the veneration of posterity. 
With singular wisdom and unflinching bravery 
they carried on their missionary and educational 
enterprises, in the face of discouragements and 
obstacles sufficient to dismay the bravest souls. 
The tenacious strength of those wild forces that 
clashed with the tenderer influences of the cloister 
should soften our criticism of the inconsistencies 
which detract from the glory of those early minis- 
ters of righteousness and exemplars of gentleness 
and peace. 



IV 

REFORMED AND MILITARY ORDERS 

THE MONASTIC institution was never 
entirely good or entirely bad. In periods 
of general degradation there were beau- 
tiful exceptions in monasteries ruled by 
pure and powerful abbots. From the beginning 
various monasteries soon departed from their dis- 
cipline by sheltering iniquity and laziness, while 
other establishments faithfully observed the rules. 
But during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries 
there was a widespread decline in the spirit of 
devotion and a shameful relaxation of monastic 
discipline. Malmesbury, King Alfred, Alcuin, in 
England, and many continental writers, sorrowfully 
testified against the monks because of their vices, 
their revelings, their vain and gorgeous ornaments 
of dress and their waning zeal for virtue. The 
priests hunted and fought, prayed, preached, swore 

173 



174 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

and drank as they pleased. " We cannot wonder," 
says an anonymous historian, " that they should 
commit the more reasonable offence of taking 
wives." Disorders were common everywhere ; the 
monastic vows were sadly neglected. Political and 
religious ideals were lost sight of amid the prevail- 
ing confusion and wild commotion of those dark 
days. " It is true," says Carlyle, " all things have 
two faces, a light one and a dark. It is true in three 
centuries much imperfection accumulates ; many an 
ideal, monastic or otherwise, shooting forth into 
practice as it can, grows to a strange reality ; and 
we have to ask with amazement. Is this your ideal ? 
For alas the ideal has to grow into the real, and to 
seek out its bed and board there, often in a sorry 
way. 

This, then, may be accepted as the usual history 
of a monastery or a monastic order. First, vows of 
poverty, obedience and chastity zealously cherished 
and observed ; as a result of loyalty to this ideal, 
a spirit of devotion to righteousness is created, and 
a pure, lofty type of Christian life is formed, which, 
if not the highest and truest, is sufficiently exalted 
to win the reverence of worldly men and an extra- 



REFORMED ORDERS 175 

ordinary power over their lives and affections. 
There naturally follow numerous and valuable 
gifts of land and gold. The monks become rich 
as well as powerful. Then the decline begins. 
Vast riches have always been a menace to true 
spirituality. Perhaps they always will be. The 
wealthy monk falls a prey to pride and arro- 
gance; he becomes luxurious in his habits, and 
lazy in the performance of duty. Vice creeps in 
and his moral ruin is complete. The transforma- 
tion in the character of the monk is accompanied 
by a change in public opinion. The monk is now 
an eyesore ; his splendid buildings are viewed with 
envy by some, with shame by others. Then arise 
the vehement cries for the destruction of his 
palatial cloister, and the heroic efforts of the rem- 
nant that abide faithful to reform the institution. 
This has been the pathway over which every 
monastic order has traveled. As long as there was 
sufficient vitality to give birth to reformatory move- 
ments, new societies sprang up as off-shoots of the 
older orders, some of which adopted the original 
rules, while others altered them to suit the views 
of the reforming founder. " For indeed," says 



176 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Trench, '^ those orders, wonderful at their begin- 
ning, and girt up so as to take heaven by storm, 
seemed destined to travel in a mournful circle 
from which there was no escape/* These facts 
partly explain the reformatory movements which 
appear from the ninth century on. 

The first great saint to enter the lists against 
monastic corruption was Benedict of Aniane (750- 
821 A. D.), a member of a distinguished family in 
southern France. The Benedictine rule in his 
opinion was formed for novices and invalids. He 
attributed the prevailing laxity among the monks to 
the mild discipline. As abbot of a monastery he 
undertook to reform its affairs by adopting a system 
based on Basil of Asia Minor and Pachomius of 
Egypt. But he leaned too far back for human 
nature in the West, and the conclusion was forced 
upon him that Benedict of Nursia had formulated 
a set of rules as strict as could be enforced among 
the Western monks. Accordingly he directed his 
efforts to secure a faithful observance of the original 
Benedictine rules, adding, however, a number of 
rigid and burdensome regulations. Although at 
first the monks doubted his sanity, kicked him 



REFORMED ORDERS 177 

and spat on him, yet he afterwards succeeded in 
gathering about three hundred of them under his 
rule. Several colonies were sent out from his 
monastery, which was built on his patrimonial 
estate near Montpellier. His last establishment, 
which was located near Aix-la-Chapelle, became 
famous as a center of learning and sanctity. 

One of the most celebrated reform monasteries 
was the convent of Cluny, or Clugny, in Bur- 
gundy, about fifteen miles from Lyons, which was 
founded by Duke William of Aquitaine in 910. 
It was governed by a code based on the rule of 
St. Benedict. The monastery began with twelve 
monks under Bruno, but became so illustrious that 
under Hugo there were ten thousand monks in the 
various convents under its rule. It was made 
immediately subject to the pope, — that is, exempt 
from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Some idea of 
its splendid equipment may be formed from the fact 
that it is said, that in 1245, after the council of 
Lyons, it entertained Innocent IV., two patriarchs, 
twelve cardinals, three archbishops, fifteen bishops, 
many abbots, St. Louis, King of France, several 

princes and princesses, each with a considerable 
12 



178 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

retinue, yet the monks were not incommoded. It 
gave to the church three popes, — Gregory VII., 
Urban II. and Paschal II. 

From his cell at Cluny, Hildebrand, who 
became the famous Gregory VII., looked out 
upon a world distracted by war and sunk in vice. 
'^ In Hildebrand's time, while he was studying 
those annals in Cluny," says Thomas Starr King, 
" a boy pope, twelve years old, was master of the 
spiritual scepter, and was beginning to lead a life so 
shameful, foul and execrable that a subsequent pope 
said, ^ he shuddered to describe it.' " 

Connected with the monastery was the largest 
church in the world, surpassed only a little, in later 
years, by St. Peter's at Rome. Its construction 
was begun in 1089 by the abbot Hugo, and it was 
consecrated in 1131, under the administration of 
Peter the Venerable. It boasted of twenty-five 
altars and many costly works of art. 

So great was the fame and influence of this 
establishment that numerous convents in France 
and Italy placed themselves under its control, thus 
forming " The Congregation of Cluny." 

After the administration of Peter the Venerable 



REFORMED ORDERS 179 

(11 22-1 156), this illustrious house began to suc- 
cumb to the intoxication of success, and it steadily 
declined in character and influence until its prop- 
erty was confiscated by the Constituent Assembly, 
in 1799, and the church sold for one hundred 
thousand francs. It is now in ruins. 

But in spite of every attempt at reform during 
the ninth and tenth centuries the decline of the 
continental monasteries continued. Many per- 
sons of royal blood, accustomed to the license of 
palaces, entered the cloister and increased the dis- 
orders. The monks naturally respected their 
blood and relaxed the discipline in their favor. 
The result was costly robes,^instead of the simple, 
monastic garb, riotous living, and a general indiffer- 
ence to spirituality. Spurious monasteries sprang 
up with rich lay-abbots at their head, who made 
the office hereditary in their families. Laymen 
were appointed to rich benefices simply that they 
might enjoy the revenues. These lay-abbots even 
went so far as to live with their families in their 
monasteries, and rollicking midnight banquets were 
substituted for the asceticism demanded by the 
vows. They traveled extensively attended by 



i8o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

splendid retinues. Some of the monks seemed 
intent on nothing but obtaining charters of privi- 
leges and exemptions from civil and military duties. 
In England the state of affairs was even more 
distressing than on the Continent. The evil effects 
of the Saxon invasion, the demoralization that 
accompanied the influx of paganism, and the almost 
complete destruction of the religious institutions 
of British Christianity have already been noted. 
About the year 700, the island was divided among 
fifteen petty chiefs, who waged war against one 
another almost incessantly. Christianity, as intro- 
duced by Augustine, had somewhat mitigated the 
ferocity of war, and England had begun to make 
some approach toward a respect for law and a vene- 
ration for the Christian religion, when the Danes 
came, and with them another period of disgraceful 
atrocities and blighting heathenism. The Danish 
invasion had almost extirpated the monastic insti- 
tution in the northern districts. Carnage and 
devastation reigned everywhere. Celebrated mon- 
asteries fell in ruins and the monks were slain or 
driven into exile. Hordes of barbaric warriors 
roamed the country, burning and plundering. 



REFORMED ORDERS i8i 

"At the close of this calamitous period," says 
Lingard, in his '* History and Antiquities of the 
Anglo-Saxon Church," " the Anglo-Saxon church 
presented a melancholy spectacle to the friends of 
religion : i . The laity had resumed the ferocious 
manners of their pagan forefathers. 2. The clergy 
had grown indolent, dissolute and illiterate. 3. 
The monastic order had been apparently annihi- 
lated. It devolved on King Alfred, victorious 
over his enemies, to devise and apply the remedies 
for these evils." The good king endeavored to 
restore the monastic institution, but, owing to the 
lack of candidates for the monastic habit, he was 
compelled to import a colony of monks from 
Gaul. 

The moral results of Alfred's reformatory meas- 
ures, as well as those of his immediate successors, 
were far from satisfactory, although he did vastly 
stimulate the educational work of the monastic 
schools. He devoted himself so faithfully to the 
gathering of traditions, that he is said to be the 
father of English history. The tide of immor- 
ality, however, was too strong to be stemmed in a 
generation or two. It was a century and a half 



i82 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

before there was even an approach to substantial 
victory over the disgraceful abuses among the 
clergy and the monks. 

The churchman who is credited with doing most 
to distinguish the monks as a zealous and faithful 
body was Dunstan (924-988 A. D.), first Abbot of 
Glastonbury, then Bishop of Winchester, and finally 
Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the most con- 
spicuous ecclesiastical personage in the history of 
those dark days, but his character and labors have 
given rise to bitter and extensive controversy. 

It was Dunstan*s chief aim to subjugate the 
Anglo-Saxon church to the power of Rome, and to 
correct existing abuses by compelling the clergy and 
the monks to obey the rule of celibacy. He was 
a fervent believer in the efficacy of the Benedictine 
vows, and in the value of clerical celibacy as a 
remedy for clerical licentiousness. Naturally, Prot- 
estant writers, who hold that papal supremacy never 
was a blessing in any country or in any age, and 
who think that clerical celibacy has always been a 
fruitful source of crime and sin, condemn the 
reforms of Dunstan in the most unqualified terms. 
A statement of a few of the many and perplexing 



REFORMED ORDERS 183 

facts may assist us to form a fairly just judgment 
of the man and his work. 

The principle of sacerdotal celibacy appeared 
early in the history of Christianity, and for many 
centuries it was the subject of sharp contention. 
Roman Catholics themselves have been divided 
upon it. In every Christian country, from the 
Apostolic period onward, there were priests and 
teachers who opposed the imposition of this rule 
upon the clergy, and, on the other hand, there were 
those who practiced and advocated celibacy as the 
indispensable guarantee of spiritual power and 
purity. 

What the rule of celibacy was at this period, in 
England, seems uncertain. Lingard maintains that 
marriage was always permitted to the clergy in minor 
orders, who were employed in various subordinate 
positions, but that those in higher orders, whose 
office it was to minister at the altar and to offer the 
sacrifice, were expressly bound to a life of the strictest 
continence. During the invasion of the Danes, 
when confusion reigned, many priests in the higher 
orders had not only forsaken their vows of chastity, 
but had plunged into frightful immoralities ; and 



i84 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

married clerks of inferior orders were raised to the 
priesthood to fill the ranks depleted by war. These 
promoted clerks were previously required to sep- 
arate from their wives, but apparently many of 
them did not do so. Consequently, from several 
causes, the married priests became a numerous 
body, and since the common opinion seems to have 
been that a married priest was disgracing his office, 
this body was regarded as a menace to the welfare 
of the church and the state. 

Lea, in his elaborate " History of Sacerdotal 
Celibacy," holds that the rule of celibacy was only 
binding on the regulars, or monks, and that the 
secular priesthood was at liberty to marry. But 
from several other passages in his work it seems 
that he also recognizes the fact that, while mar- 
riage was common, it was in defiance of an ancient 
canon. "It is evident," he says, ** that the mem- 
ory of the ancient canons was not forgotten, and 
that their observance was still urged by some 
ardent churchmen, but that the customs of the 
period had rendered them virtually obsolete, and 
that no sufficient means existed of enforcing obe- 
dience. If open scandals and shameless bigamy 



REFORMED ORDERS 185 

and concubinage could be restrained, the ecclesias- 
tical authorities were evidently content. Celibacy 
could not be enjoined as a law, but was rendered 
attractive by surrounding it with privileges and 
immunities denied to him who yielded to the 
temptations of the flesh/* 

Throughout Western Christendom the law of 
celibacy was openly and shamefully trampled upon, 
and every reformer seemed to think that the very 
first step toward any improvement in clerical 
morals was to be taken by enforcing this rule. 

When Dunstan commenced his reforms, the 
clergy were guilty of graver sins than that of living 
in marriage relations. Adultery, bigamy, swearing, 
fighting and drinking were the order of the day. 
The monasteries were occupied by secular priests 
with wives or concubines. All the chroniclers of 
this period agree in charging the monks and clergy 
with a variety of dissipations and disorders. 

It is quite clear, therefore, that in Dunstan's view 
he was doing the only right thing in trying to cor- 
rect the existing abuses by compelling the priests to 
adopt that celibate life without which it was popu- 
larly believed the highest holiness and the largest 



i86 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

usefulness could not be attained. In the light of 
this purpose and this common opinion of his time, 
Dunstan and his mission should be judged. 

Dunstan was aided in his work by King Edgar 
the Pacific, who, by the way, was himself compelled 
to go without his crown seven years for violating the 
chastity of a nun. Oswald, the Bishop of Wor- 
cester, and Ethelwold, the Bishop of Winchester, 
were also zealously engaged in the task of reform. 

A law was enacted providing that priests, deacons 
and sub-deacons should live chastely or resign. As 
a result of this law, many priests were ejected from 
the monasteries and from their official positions. 
Strict monks were put in their places. A strong 
opposition party was created, and the ejected clergy 
aroused such discontent that a civil war was barely 
averted. This state of things continued until the 
Norman invasion, when the monks and secular 
clergy joined forces in the common defence of their 
property and ecclesiastical rights. 

It would seem that many writers, misled by legends 
for which Dunstan must not be held responsible, and 
blinded by religious prejudice, have unjustly charged 
him with hypocrisy and even crime. All his methods 



REFORMED ORDERS 187 

may not be defensible when estimated in the light 
of modern knowledge, and even his ideal may be 
rejected when judged by modern standards of Chris- 
tian character, but he must be considered with the 
moral and intellectual life of his times in full view. 
He was a champion of the oppressed, a friend of the 
poor, an unflinching foe of sinful men in the pulpit 
or on the throne. His will was inflexible, his inde- 
pendence noble and his energy untiring. In trying 
to bring the Anglo-Saxon church into conformity to 
Rome he was actuated by a higher motive than the 
merely selfish desire for ecclesiastical authority. 
He regarded this harmony as the only remedy for 
the prevailing disorders. He believed, like many 
other churchmen of unquestioned purity and hon- 
esty, that it was necessary to compel temporal 
authorities to recognize the power of the church in 
order to overcome that defiance of moral law which 
was the chief characteristic of the kings and princes 
in that turbulent period. 

What the Anglo-Saxon church might have been 
if the rule of celibacy had not been forced upon 
her, and if she had not submitted to Roman 
authority in other matters, is a theme for specula- 



i88 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

tion only. The fact is that Dunstan found a church 
corrupt to the core and left it, as a result of his 
purifying efforts, with some semblance, to say the 
least, of moral influence and spiritual purity. Some 
other kind of ecclesiastical polity than that advo- 
cated by Dunstan might have achieved the same 
results as his, but the simple fact is that none did. 
In so far as Dunstan succeeded in his monastic 
measures, he laid the foundations of an ecclesiastical 
power which afterwards became a serious menace to 
the political freedom of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
The battle begun by him raged fiercely between the 
popes, efficiently supported by the monks, and the 
kings of England, with varying fortunes, for many 
centuries. But perhaps, under the plans of that 
benign Providence who presides over the destiny of 
nations, it was essentially in the interests of civiliza- 
tion, that the lawlessness of rulers and the vices of 
the people should be restrained by that ecclesias- 
tical power, which, in after years, and at the proper 
time, should be forced to recede to its legitimate 
sphere and functions. 

Another celebrated reformatory movement was 
begun by St. Bruno, who founded the Carthusian 



REFORMED ORDERS 189 

Order about the year 1086. Ruskin says : "In 
their strength, from the foundation of the order at 
the close of the eleventh century to the beginning 
of the fourteenth, they reared in their mountain 
fastnesses and sent out to minister to the world a 
succession of men of immense mental grasp and 
serenely authoritative innocence, among whom our 
own Hugh of Lincoln, in his relations with Henry 
II. and Coeur de Lion, is to my mind the most 
beautiful sacerdotal figure known to me in history." 

Bruno, with six companions, established the 
famous Grand Chartreuse in a rocky wilderness, 
near Grenoble, in France, separated from the rest 
of the world by a chain of wild mountains, which 
are covered with ice and snow for two-thirds of 
the year. 

Until the time of Guigo (i 137), the Grand Char- 
treuse was governed by unwritten rules. Thirteen 
monks only were permitted to live together, and 
sixteen converts in the huts at the foot of the hill. 
The policy of this monastery was at first opposed 
to all connection with other monasteries. But 
applications for admission were so numerous that 
colonies were sent out in various directions, all 



190 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

subject to the mother house. The Carthusians 
differed in many respects from other orders. The 
rules of Dom Guigo indicate that the chief aim 
was to preclude the monks from intercourse with 
the world, and largely with each other, for each 
monk had separate apartments, cooked his own 
food, and so rarely met with his brethren, that he 
was practically a hermit. The clothing consisted 
of a rough hair shirt, worn next the skin, a white 
cassock over it, and, when they went out, a black 
robe. Fasting was observed at least three days a 
week, and meat was strictly forbidden. Respecting 
contact with women Dom Guigo says : " Under no 
circumstances whatever do we allow women to set 
foot within our precincts, knowing as we do that 
neither wise man, nor prophet, nor judge, nor the 
entertainer of God, nor the sons of God, nor the 
first created of mankind, fashioned by God*s own 
hands, could escape the wiles and deceits of women." 
Blistering and bleeding, as well as fasting, were 
employed to control evil impulses. On the whole, 
the austerities were as severe as human nature in 
that wild and cold region could endure. Yet the 
prosperity that rewarded the piety and labors of the 



REFORMED ORDERS 191 

Carthusian monks proved more than a match for 
their rigorous discipline, and in the middle of the 
thirteenth century we read charges of laxity and 
disorder. 

The Carthusians settled in England in the twelfth 
century, and had a famous monastery in London, 
since called the Charterhouse. The order was in 
many respects the most successful attempt at reform, 
but as has been said, " the whole order, and each 
individual member, is like a petrifaction from the 
Middle Ages.'* Owing to its extremely solitary 
ideal and its severe discipline, it was unfitted to 
secure extensive control, or to gain a permanent 
influence upon the rapidly-developing European 
nations. Its chief contributions to modern civiHza- 
tion were made by the gift of noble men who passed 
from the seclusion of the cell into the active life 
of the world, thus practically proving that the 
monks' greatest usefulness was attained when loyalty 
to their vows yielded to a broader ideal of Christian 
character and service. 

Thus the months passed into years and the years 
into centuries. Man was slowly working out his 
salvation. Painfully, laboriously he emerged out 



192 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

of barbarism into the lower forms of civilization ; 
wearily he trudged on his way toward the universal 
kingdom of righteousness and peace. 

There were many other attempts at reform which 
may not even be mentioned, but one character 
deserves brief consideration, — Bernard of Clair- 
vaux, — the fairest flower of those corrupt days. 
The order to which he belonged was the Cistercians, 
so named because their mother house was at Citeaux 
(Latin, Cistercium)^ in France. Its members are 
sometimes called the " White Monks," because of 
their white tunics. Their buildings, with their bare 
walls and low rafters, were a rebuke to the splendid 
edifices of the richer orders. Austere simplicity 
characterized their churches, liturgy and habits. 
Gorgeousness in decoration and ostentation in 
public services were carefully avoided. They used 
no pictures, stained glass or images. Once a week 
they flogged their sinful bodies. Only four hours* 
sleep was allowed. Seeking out the wildest spots 
and most rugged peaks they built their retreats, 
beautiful in their simplicity and furnishing some 
of the finest examples of monastic architecture. 
The order spread into England, where the first 



REFORMED ORDERS 193 

Cistercians were characterized by devoutness and 
poverty. After a while the hand of fate wrote of 
them as it had of so many, '^ none were more 
greedy in adding farm to farm ; none less scrupulous 
in obtaining grants of land from wealthy patrons.*' 
In general, the order was no better and no worse 
than the rest, but its chief glory is derived from the 
luster that was shed upon it by Bernard. 

This illustrious counselor of kings and Catholic 
saint was born in Burgundy in 1091. When about 
twenty years of age he entered the monastery at 
Citeaux with five of his brothers. His genius 
might have secured ecclesiastical preferment, but he 
chose to dig ditches, plant fields and govern a 
monastery. He entered the cloister at Citeaux 
because the monks were few and poor, and when it 
became crowded because of his fame, and its rule 
became lax because of the crowds, he left the cloister 
to found a home of his own. The abbot selected 
twelve monks, following the number of apostles, 
and at their head placed young Bernard. He led 
the twelve to the valley of Wormwood, and there, 
in a cheerless forest, he established the monastery of 
Clairvaux, or Clear Valley. His rule was fiercely 

13 



194 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

severe because he himself loved hardships and rough 
fare. " It in no way befits religion," he writes, " to 
seek remedies for the body, nor is it good for health 
either. You may now and then take some cheap 
herb, — such as poor men may, — and this is done 
sometimes. But to buy drugs, to hunt up doctors, 
to take doses, is unbecoming to religion and hostile 
to purity." His success in winning men to the 
monastic life was almost phenomenal. It was said 
that " mothers hid their sons, wives their husbands, 
and companions their friends, lest they be persuaded 
by his eloquent message to enter the cloister." 
"He was avoided like a plague," says one. 

Bernard's monks changed the whole face of the 
country by felling trees and tilling the ground. 
Their spiritual power rid the valley of Wormwood 
of its robbers, and the district grew rich and pros- 
perous. Thus Bernard became the most famous 
man of his time. He was the arbiter in papal elec- ^ 
tions, the judge in temporal quarrels, the healer of 
schisms and a powerful preacher of the crusades. 
He was the embodiment of all that was best in the 
thought of his age. His weaknesses ^0 faults may 
largely be explained by the fact that no man can rise 



REFORMED ORDERS 195 

entirely above the spirit of his times and absolutely 
free himself from all pernicious tendencies. " As 
an advocate for the rights of the church, for the 
immunities of the clergy, no less than for the great 
interests of morality, he was fierce, intractable, 
unforgiving, haughty and tyrannical." There was, 
however, no note of insincerity in his work or 
writings, and no tinge of hypocrisy in fervent zeal. 
He was brave, honest and pure ; controlled always 
by a consuming passion for the moral welfare of the 
people. 

Our chief interest in Bernard relates to his 
monastic work which shed undying luster on his 
name. Vaughan, in his " Hours with the Mystics," 
says of him : " His incessant cry for Europe is. 
Better monasteries, and more of them. Let these 
ecclesiastical castles multiply ; let them cover and 
command the land, well garrisoned with men of 
God, and then, despite all heresy and schism, theoc- 
racy will flourish, the earth shall yield her increase, 
and all people praise the Lord. . . . Bernard 
had the satisfaction of improving and extending 
monasticism to the utmost ; of sewing together, 
with tolerable success, the rended vesture of the 



196 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

papacy ; of suppressing a more popular and more 
scriptural Christianity for the benefit of his despotic 
order ; of quenching for a time, by the extinction 
of Abelard, the spirit of free inquiry, and of seeing 
his ascetic and superhuman ideal of religion every- 
where accepted as the genuine type of Christianity." 
But in spite of Dunstans, Brunos and Bernards, 
the monastic institution keeps on crumbling. The 
edifice will not stand much more propping and tinker- 
ing. While we admire this display of moral force, 
this commendable struggle of fresh courage and 
new hope against disintegrating forces, the convic- 
tion gains ground that something is radically wrong 
with the institution. There is something in it which 
fosters greed and desperate ambition. "Is it not a 
shame," we feel compelled to ask, " that so much 
splendid, chivalrous courage and magnificent energy 
should be expended in trying to prevent a structure 
from falling, which, it seems, could not possibly 
have been saved ? " But while the decay could not 
be stayed, we must admire the noble aims and pious 
enthusiasm of the reformers who sought to preserve 
an institution which to them seemed the only hope 
of a sinful world. 



REFORMED ORDERS 197 

Dr. Storrs, in his life of Bernard, says : " His 
soon-canonized name has shone starlike in history 
ever since he was buried ; and it will not hereafter 
decline from its height or lose its luster, while men 
continue to recognize with honor the temper of 
devoted Christian consecration, a character compact 
of noble forces, and infused with self-forgetful love 
for God and man." 

The Military Religious Orders 

The life of Bernard forms an appropriate intro- 
duction to a consideration of the Military Religious 
Orders. Although weary with labor and the weight 
of years, he traveled over Europe preaching the 
second crusade. " To kill or to be killed for 
Christ's sake is alike righteous and alike safe," this 
was his message to the world. In spite of the 
opposition of court advisers, Bernard induced Louis 
VII. and Conrad of Germany to take the crusader's 
vow. He gave the Knights Templars a new rule 
and kindled afresh a zeal for the knighthood. 
Although the members of the Military Orders were 
not monks in the strict sense of the word, yet they 



198 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

were soldier-monks, and as such deserve to be 
mentioned here. 

At the basis of all monastic orders, as has been 
pointed out, were the three vows of obedience, 
celibacy and poverty. Certain orders, by adding to 
these rules other obligations, or by laying special 
stress on one of the three ancient vows, produced 
new and distinct types of monastic character and 
life. 

The Knights of the Hospital assumed as their 
peculiar work the care of the sick. The Begging 
Friars, as will be seen later, were distinguished by 
the importance which they attached to the rule of 
poverty ; the Jesuits, by exalting the law of unques- 
tioning obedience. In view of the warlike character 
of the Middle Ages it is strange the soldier-monk 
did not appear earlier than he did. The abbots, in 
many cases, were feudal lords with immense possess- 
ions which needed protection like secular property, 
but as this could not be secured by the arts of 
peace, we find traces of the union of the soldier and 
the monk before the distinct orders professing that 
character. The immediate cause of such organiza- 
tions was the crusades. There were numerous 



REFORMED ORDERS 199 

societies of this character, some of them so far 
removed from the monastic type as scarcely to be 
ranked with monastic institutions. One list men- 
tions two hundred and seven of these Orders of 
Knighthood, comprising many varieties in theory 
and practice. The most important were three, — 
the Knights of the Hospital, or the Knights of St. 
John ; the Knights Templars ; and the Teutonic 
Knights. The Hospitallers wore black mantles 
with white crosses, the Templars white mantles with 
red crosses, and the Teutonic Knights white mantles 
with black crosses. The mantles were in fact the 
robe of the monk adorned with a cross. The whole 
system was really a marriage of monasticism and 
chivalry, as Gibbon says : " The firmest bulwark of 
Jerusalem was founded in the Knights of the Hos- 
pital and of the Temple, that strange association 
of monastic and military life. The flower of the 
nobihty of Europe aspired to wear the cross and 
profess the vows of these orders ; their spirit and 
discipline were immortal.'* 

A passage in the Alexiad quoted in Walter Scott's 
" Robert of Paris " reads : " As for the multitude 
of those who advanced toward the great city let it 



200 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

be enough to say, that they were as the stars in the 
heaven or as the sand of the seashore. They were in 
the words of Homer, as many as the leaves and 
flowers of spring." This figurative description is 
almost literally true. Europe poured her men and 
her wealth into the East. No one but an eye- 
witness can conceive of the vast amount of suffering 
endured by those fanatical multitudes as they roamed 
the streets of Jerusalem looking for shelter, or lay 
starving by the roadside on a bed of grass. 

The term Hospitallers was applied to certain 
brotherhoods of monks and laymen. While pro- 
fessing some monastic rule, the members of these 
societies devoted themselves solely to caring for 
the sick and the poor, the hospitals in those days 
being connected with the monasteries. 

About the year 1050 some Italian merchants 
secured permission to build a convent in Jerusalem 
to shelter Latin pilgrims. The hotels which sprang 
up after this were gradually transformed into hos- 
pitals for the care of the sick and presided over by 
Benedictine monks. The sick were carefully nursed 
and shelter granted to as many as could be accom- 
modated. Nobles abandoned the profession of 



REFORMED ORDERS 201 

arms and, becoming monks, devoted themselves to 
caring for the unfortunate crusaders in these inns. 
The work rapidly increased in extent and import- 
ance. In the year 1099, Godfrey de Bouillon 
endowed the original hospital, which had been dedi- 
cated to St. John. He also established many other 
monasteries on this holy soil. The monks, most 
of whom were also knights, formed an organization 
which received confirmation from Rome, as " The 
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem." The order 
rapidly assumed a distinctly military character, for, 
to do its work completely, it must not only care 
for the sick in Jerusalem, but defend the pilgrim 
on his way to the Holy City. This ended in an 
undertaking to defend Christendom against Moham- 
medan invasion and in fighting for the recovery of 
the Holy Sepulcher. 

After visiting some of these Palestinian monas- 
teries, a king of Hungary thus describes his impress- 
ions : " Lodging in their houses, I have seen them 
feed every day innumerable multitudes of poor, 
the sick laid on good beds and treated with great 
care. In a word, the Knights of St. John are 
employed sometimes like Martha, in action, and 



202 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

sometimes like Mary, in contemplation, and this 
noble militia consecrate their days either in their 
infirmaries or else in engagements against the enemies 
of the cross." 

The Knights Templars were far more militant 
than the Knights of St. John, but they also were 
actuated by the monastic spirit. Bernard tried to 
inspire this order with a strong Christian zeal so 
that, as he said, " War should become something 
of which God could approve." The success which 
attended its operations led as usual to its corrup- 
tion and decline. Beginning with a few crusaders 
leagued together for service and living on the site 
of the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, it soon 
widened the scope of its services and became a 
powerful branch of the crusading army. It was 
charged by Philip IV. of France, in 1307, with 
the most fearful crimes, to sustain or to deny which 
accusations many volumes have been composed. 
Five years later the order was suppressed and its 
vast accumulations transferred to the Knights of 
St. John. " The horrible fate of the Templars," 
says Allen, " was taken by many as a beginning and 
omen of the destruction that would soon pass upon 



REFORMED ORDERS 203 

all the hated religious orders. And so this final 
burst of enthusiasm and splendor in the religious 
life was among the prognostics of a state of things 
in which monasticism must fade quite away." 

Wondrous changes have taken place in those dark 
and troubled years since Benedict began his labors 
at Monte Cassino, in 529. The monk has prayed 
alone in the mountains, and converted the barbarian 
in the forest. He has preached the crusades in 
magnificent cathedrals, and crossed stormy seas in 
his frail bark. He has made the schools famous by 
his literary achievements, and taught children the 
alphabet in the woodland cell. He has been good 
and bad, proud and humble, rich and poor, arrogant 
and gentle. He has met the shock of lances on his 
prancing steed, and trudged barefoot from town to 
town. He has copied manuscripts in the lonely 
Scottish isle, and bathed the fevered brow of the 
pilgrim in the hospital at Jerusalem. He has dug 
ditches, and governed the world as the pope of the 
Church. He has held the plow in the furrow, and 
thwarted the devices of the king. He has befriended 
the poor, and imposed penance upon princes. He 
has imitated the poverty and purity of Jesus, and 



204 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



aped the pomp and vice of kings. He has dwelt 
solitary on cold mountains, subsisting on bread, 
roots and water, and he has surrounded himself 
with menials ready to gratify every luxurious wish, 
amid the splendor of palatial cloisters. Still there 
are new types and phases of monasticism yet to 
appear. The monk has other tasks to undertake, 
for the world is not yet sufficiently wearied of his 
presence to destroy his cloister and banish him from 
the land. 



I 



THE MENDICANT FRIARS 

tA BRAHAM LINCOLN only applied a 
/ ^ general principle to a specific case when 
y m he said, " This nation cannot long 
endure half slave and half free." Glar- 
ing inconsistencies between faith and practice will 
eventually destroy any institution, however lofty its 
ideal or noble its foundation. God suffers long 
and is kind, but His forbearance is not limitless. 
Monasticism, as has been shown, was never free from 
serious inconsistency, from moral dualism. But 
the power of reform prolonged its existence. It 
was constantly producing fresh models of its ancient 
ideals. It had a hidden reserve-force from which it 
supplied shining examples of a living faith and a 
self-denying love, just at the time when it seemed 
as if the system was about to perish forever. When 

these fresh exhibitions of monastic fidelity likewise 

205 



2o6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

became tarnished, when men had tired of them and 
predicted the speedy collapse of the institution, 
forth from the cloister came another body of 
monkish recruits, to convince the world that 
monasticism was not dead ; that it did not intend 
to die ; that it was mightier than all its enemies. 
The day came, however, when the world lost its 
confidence in an institution which required such 
constant reforming to keep it pure, which demanded 
so much cleansing to keep it clean. Ideals that 
could so quickly lose their influence for good came 
to be looked upon with suspicion. 

At the beginning of the thirteenth century we 
are confronted by the anomaly of a church grossly 
corrupt but widely obeyed. She is nearing the 
pinnacle of her power and the zenith of her glory, 
although the parochial clergy have sunk into vice 
and incapacity, and the monks, as a class, are 
lazy, ignorant and notoriously corrupt. Two 
things, especially, command the attention, — first, 
the immorality and laxity of the monks ; and 
second, the growth of heresies and the tendency 
toward open schism. The necessity of reform was 
clearly apprehended by the church as well as by the 



<rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 207 

stical parties, but, since the church had such a 

d upon society, those who sought to reform the 

nasteries by returning to old behefs and ancient 

toms were much more in favor than those who 

left the church and opposed her from the outside. 

The impossibility of substantial, internal reform had 

not yet come to be generally recognized. As time 

passed the conviction that it was of no use to 

attempt reforms from the inside gained ground; 

then the separatists multiplied, and the shedding 

of blood commenced. The world had to learn 

anew that it was futile to put new wine into old 

bottles or to patch new cloth on an old garment. 

" It is the privilege of genius," says Trench, 

" to evoke a new creation, where to common eyes 

all appears barren and worn out." Francis and 

Dominic evoked this new creation ; but although 

the monk now will appear in a new garb, he will 

prove himself to be about the same old character 

whom the world has known a great many years ; 

en this discovery is made monasticism is doomed. 

rplexed Europe will anxiously seek some means 

destruction, but God will have Luther ready to 

in the solution of the problem. 



2o8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



Francis Bernardone^ 1 182-1226 A, B. 

Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan 
Order, was born at Assisi, a walled town of Umbria, 
in Italy. His father, Peter Bernardone, or Bernardo, 
was in France on business when his son was born 
and named. On his return, or, as some say, at a 
later time, he changed his son's name from John to 
Francis. His wealth enabled him to supply Francis 
with the funds necessary to maintain his leadership 
among gay companions. Catholic writers are fond 
of describing the early years of their saints as 
marked by vice in order to portray them as miracles 
of grace. It is therefore uncertain whether Francis 
was anything worse than a happy, joyous lad, who 
loved fine clothes, midnight songs and parties of 
pleasure. He was certainly a very popular and 
courteous lad, very much in love with the world. 
During a short service in the army he was taken 
prisoner. After his release he fell sick, and experi- 
enced a temporary disgust with his past life. With 
his renewed health his love of festivities and dress 
returned. 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 209 

Walking out one day, dressed in a handsome 
new suit, he met a poor and ill-clad soldier ; moved 
to pity, he exchanged his fine clothes for the rags 
of the stranger. That night Francis dreamed of a 
splendid castle, with gorgeous banners flying from 
its ramparts, and suits of armor adorned with the 
cross. " These," said a voice, " are for you and 
for your soldiers.'* We are told that this was 
intended to be taken spiritually and was prophetic 
of the Begging Friars, but Francis misunderstood 
the dream, taking it as a token of military achieve- 
ments. The next day he set off mounted on a 
fine horse, saying as he left, " I shall be a great 
prince.'' But his weak frame could not endure such 
rough usage and he was taken sick at Spoleto. 
Again he dreamed. This time the vision revealed 
his misinterpretation of the former message, and so, 
on his recovery, he returned somewhat crestfallen to 
Assisi, where he gave his friends 2^ farewell feast. 
Thus at the threshold of his career we note two 
important facts, — disease and dreams. All through 
his life he had these fits of sickness, attended by 
dreams ; and throughout his life he was guided by 
these visions. Neander remarks : "It would be a 

14 



2IO MONKS and MONASTERIES 

matter of some importance if we could be more 
exactly informed with regard to the nature of his 
disease and the way in which it affected his physical 
and mental constitution. Perhaps it might assist 
us to a more satisfactory explanation of the eccen- 
tric vein in his life, that singular mixture of religious 
enthusiasm bordering insanity ; but we are left 
wholly in the dark." 

Francis now devoted himself to his father's 
business, but dreams and visions continued to dis- 
tress him. His spiritual fervor increased daily. 
He grieved for the poor and gave himself to the 
care of the sick, especially the lepers. During a 
visit to Rome he became so sad at the sight of 
desperate poverty that he impetuously flung his bag 
of gold upon the altar with such force as to startle 
the worshipers. He went out from the church, 
exchanged his clothes for a beggar's rags, and stood 
for hours asking alms among a crowd of filthy 
beggars. 

But though Francis longed to associate himself 
in some way with the lowest classes, he could obtain 
no certain light upon his duty. While prostrated 
before the crucifix, in the dilapidated church of 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 211 

St. Damian, in Assisi, he heard a voice saying, 
" Francis, seest thou not that my house is in ruins ? 
Go and restore it for me." Again it is said that this 
pointed to his great life-work of restoring spiritual 
power to the church, but he again accepted the 
message in a literal sense. Delighted to receive a 
command so specific, the kneeling Francis fervently 
responded, "With good will. Lord," and gladly 
entered upon the task of repairing the church of 
St. Damian. " Having fortified himself by the sign 
of the cross," he took a horse and a valuable bundle 
of goods belonging to his father and sold both at 
Falingo. Instead of turning the proceeds over to 
his father, Francis offered them to the priest of St. 
Damian, who, fearing the father's displeasure, refused 
to accept the stolen funds. The young zealot, 
"who had utter contempt for money," threw the 
gold on one of the windows of the church. Such 
is the story as gleaned from Catholic sources. 
The heretics, who have criticised Francis for this 
conduct, are answered by the following ingenious 
but dangerous sophistry : "It is certainly quite 
contrary to the ordinary law of justice for one man 
to take for himself the property of another ; but if 



212 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Almighty God, to whom all things belong, and for 
whom we are only stewards, is pleased to dispense 
with this His own law in a particular case, and to 
bestow what He has hitherto given to one upon 
another. He confers at the same time a valid title to 
the gift, and it is no robbery in him who has received 
it to act upon that title." 

Fearing his father's wrath, Francis hid himself in 
the priest's room, and contemporary authors assure 
us that when the irate parent entered, Francis was 
miraculously let into the wall. Wading (1731 
A. D.) says the hollow place may still be seen in the 
wall. 

After a month, the young hero, confident of his 
courage to face his father, came forth pale and weak, 
only to be stoned as a madman by the people. 
His father locked him up in the house, but the 
tenderer compassion of his mother released him 
from his bonds, and he found refuge with the priest. 
When his father demanded his return, Francis tore 
off his clothes and, as he flung the last rag at the 
feet of his astounded parent, he exclaimed : " Peter 
Bernardone was my father ; I have but one father. 
He that is in Heaven." The crowd was deeply 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 



213 



moved, especially when they saw before them the 
hair shirt which Francis had secretly worn under 
his garments. Gathering up all that was left to him 
of his son, the father sadly departed, leaving the 
young enthusiast to fight his own way through the 
world. Many times after that, the parents, who 
tenderly watched over the lad in sickness and prayed 
for his recovery, saw their beloved son leading his 
barefooted beggars through the streets of his native 
town. But he will never more sing his gay songs 
underneath their roof or sally forth with his merry 
companions in search of pleasure. Francis was 
given a laborer*s cloak, upon which he made the 
sign of a cross with some mortar, " thus manifesting 
what he wished to be, a half-naked poor one, and a 
crucified man." Such was the saint, in 1206, in 
his twenty-fifth year. 

Francis now went forth, singing sacred songs, 
begging his food, and helping the sick and the poor. 
He was employed " in the vilest affairs of the 
scullery " in a neighboring monastery. At this 
time he clothed himself in the monk's dress, a 
short tunic, a leathern girdle, shoes and a staff. 
He waited upon lepers and kissed their disgusting 



214 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

ulcers. Yet more, he instantly cured a dreadfully 
cancerous face by kissing it. He ate the most 
revolting messes, reproaching himself for recoiling 
in nausea. Thus the pauper of Jesus Christ con- 
quered his pride and luxurious tastes. 

Francis finally returned to repair the church of 
St. Damian. The people derided, even stoned 
him, but he had learned to rejoice in abuse. They 
did not know of what stern stuff their fellow- 
townsman was made. He bore all their insults 
meekly, and persevered in his work, carrying stones 
with his own hands and promising the blessing of 
God on all who helped him in his joyful task. His 
kindness and smiles melted hatred ; derision turned 
to admiration. " Many were moved to tears," 
says his biographers, "while Francis worked on 
with cheerful simplicity, begging his materials, stone 
by stone, and singing psalms about the streets.'* 

Two years after his conversion, or in 1208, while 
kneeling in the church of Sta. Maria dei Angeli, he 
heard the words of Christ : " Provide neither gold 
nor silver nor brass in your purses, neither two 
coats nor shoes nor staff, but go and preach." 
Afterwards, when the meaning of these words was 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 215 

explained to him, he exclaimed : " This is what I 
seek for ! ** He threw away his wallet, took off his 
shoes, and replaced his leather girdle by a cord. His 
hermit's tunic appearing too delicate, he put on a 
coarse, gray robe, reaching to his feet, with sleeves 
that came down over his fingers ; to this he added 
a hood, covering his head and face. Clothing of 
this character he wore to the end of his life. This 
was in 1208, which is regarded as the first year of 
the Order of St. Francis. The next year Francis 
gave this habit to those who had joined him. 

So the first and chief of Franciscan friars, unat- 
tended by mortal companions, went humbly forth 
to proclaim the grandeur and goodness of a God, 
who, according to monastic teaching, demands pen- 
ance and poverty of his creatures as the price of his 
highest favor and richest blessings. Nearly seven 
hundred long years have passed since that eventful 
day, but the begging Brothers of Francis still 
traverse those Italian highways over which the saint 
now journeyed with meek and joyous spirit. 

" He was not yet far distant from his rising 
Before he had begun to make the earth 
Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel. 



2i6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

For he in youth his father's wrath incurred 

For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death. 

The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock j 

And was before his spiritual court 

Et coram patre unto her united j 

Then day by day more fervently he loved her. 



But that too darkly I may not proceed, 

Francis and Poverty for these two lovers 

Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse." 

— Dante. 

In J 2 lo, with eleven companions, his entire band, 
Francis went to Rome to secure papal sanction. 
Pope Innocent III. was walking in a garden of 
the Lateran Palace when a beggar, dusty and 
pale, confronted him. Provoked at being dis- 
turbed in his thoughts, he drove him away. 
That night it was the pope's turn to dream. 
He saw a falling church supported by a poor 
and miserable man. Of course, that man was 
Francis. Four or five years later the pope will 
dream the same thing again. Then the poor 
man will be Dominic. In the morning he sent 
for the monk whom he had driven from him as 
a madman the day before. Standing before his 
holiness and the college of cardinals, Francis 
pleaded his cause in a touching and eloquent 



1 



the MENDICANT FRIARS 217 

parable. His quiet, earnest manner and clear blue 
eyes impressed every one. The pope did not give 
him formal sanction however — this was left for 
Honorius III., November 29, 1223 — but he 
verbally permitted him to establish his order and 
to continue his preaching. 

Several times Francis set out to preach to the 
Mohammedans, but failed to reach his destination. 
He finally visited Egypt during the siege of 
Damietta, and at the risk of his life he went 
forth to preach to the sultan encamped on the 
Nile. He is described by an eye-witness " as an \ 
ignorant and simple man, beloved of God and j 
men." His courage and personal magnetism won 
the Mohammedan's sympathy but not his soul. 
Although Francis courted martyrdom, and offered 
to walk through fire to prove the truth of his 
message, the Oriental took it all too good-naturedly 
to put him to the test, and dismissed him with 
kindness. 

Francis was a great lover of birds. The swal- 
lows he called his sisters. A bird in the cage 
excited his deepest sympathy. It is said he 
sometimes preached to the feathered songsters. 



2i8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Longfellow has cast one of these homilies into 
poetic form : 

" O brother birds, St. Francis said, 
Ye come to me and ask for bread. 
But not with bread alone to-day 
Shall ye be fed and sent away. 



Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise 

The great Creator in your lays ; 

He giveth you your plumes of down, 

Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown. 

He giveth you your wings to fly 
And breathe a purer air on high. 
And careth for you everywhere, 
Who for yourselves so little care." 

Like all ascetics, Francis was tempted in vis- 
ions. One cold night he fancied he was in a 
home of his own, with his wife and children 
around him. Rushing out of his cell he heaped 
up seven hills of snow to represent a wife, four 
sons and daughters, and two servants. " Make 
haste," he cried, " provide clothing for them lest 
they perish with the cold,** and falling upon the 
imaginary group, he dispelled the vision of domes- 
tic bliss in the cold embrace of the winter's 
snow. Mrs. Oliphant points out the fact that, 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 219 

unlike most of the hermits and monks, Francis 
dreams not of dancing girls, but of the pure love 
of a wife and the modest joys of a home and 
children. She beautifully says : "Had he, for one 
sweet, miserable moment, gone back to some old 
imagination and seen the unborn faces shine 
beside the never-lighted fire ? But Francis does 
not say a word of any such trial going on in his 
heart. He dissipates the dream by the chill 
touch of the snow, by still nature hushing the 
fiery thoughts, by sudden action, so violent as to 
stir the blood in his veins ; and then the curtain 
of prayer and silence falls over him, and the con- 
vent walls close black around." 

The experience of the saint on Mount Alverno 
deserves special consideration, not merely on 
account of its singularity, but also because it 
affords a striking illustration of the difficulties 
one encounters in trying to get at the truth in 
monastic narratives. Francis had retired to Mount 
Alverno, a wild and rugged solitude, to meditate 
upon the Lord's passion. For days he had been 
almost distracted with grief and holy sympathy. 
Suddenly a seraph with six wings stood before 



220 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

him. When the heavenly being departed, the 
marks of the Crucified One appeared upon the 
saint's body. St. Bonaventure says : " His feet 
and hands were seen to be perforated by nails in 
their middle ; the heads of the nails, round and 
black, were on the inside of the hands, and on 
the upper parts of the feet ; the points, which 
were rather long, and which came out on the 
opposite sides, were turned and raised above the 
flesh, from which they came out." There also 
appeared on his right side f^ red wound, which 
often oozed a sacred blood that stained his tunic. 

This remarkable story has provoked consider- 
able discussion. One's conclusions respecting its 
credibility will quite likely be determined by his 
general view of numerous similar narratives, and 
by the degree of his confidence in the value of 
human testimony touching such matters. The 
incongruities and palpable impostures that seri- 
ously impair the general reliability of monkish 
historians render it difficult to distinguish between 
the truths and errors in their writings. 

Some authorities hold that the marks did not 
appear on St. Francis, and that the story is with- 



i:he MENDICANT FRIARS 221 

out foundation. But Roman writers bring for- 
ward the three early biographers of Francis who 
claim that the marks did appear. Pope Alexan- 
der IV. publicly averred that he saw the wounds, 
and pronounced it heresy to doubt the report. 
Popes Benedict XL, Sixtus IV., and Sixtus V. 
consecrated and canonized the impressions by 
instituting a particular festival in their honor. 
Numerous persons are said to have seen the 
marks and to have kissed the nails, after the 
death of the saint. Singularly enough, the Domi- 
nicans were inclined to regard the story as a 
piece of imposture designed to exalt Francis 
above Dominic. 

But, if it be admitted that the marks did 
appear, as it is not improbable, how shall the 
phenomenon be explained ? At least four theories 
are held: i. Fraud; 2. The irresponsible self- 
infliction of the wounds ; 3. Physical effects due 
to mental suggestion or some other psychic cause ; 
4. Miracle. 

I. The temptation is strong to claim a fraud, 
especially because the same witnesses who testify 
to the truth of the tale, also relate such mon- 



222 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

strous, incredible stories, that one is almost forced 
to doubt either their integrity or their sanity. 
But there is no evidence in support of so serious 
an indictment. After showing that signs and 
portents attend every crisis in history, Mrs. Oli- 
phant says : " Every great spiritual awakening has 
been accompanied by phenomena quite incompre- 
hensible, which none but the vulgar mind can 
attribute to trickery and imposture ; *' but still she 
herself remains in doubt about the whole story. 
2. Although Mosheim uses the term " fraud," 
it would seem that he means rather the irrespon- 
sible self-infliction of the wounds. He says : 
"As he [Francis] was a most euperstitious and 
fanatical mortal, it is undoubtedly evident that he 
imprinted on himself the holy wounds. Paul's 
words, ' I bear in my body the marks of the Lord 
Jesus,' may have suggested the idea of the fraud." 
The notion certainly prevailed that Francis was a 
sort of second Christ, and a book was circulated 
showing how he might be compared to Christ in 
forty particulars. There are many things in his biog- 
raphy which, if true, indicate that Francis yearned ■ 
to imitate literally the experiences of his Lord. 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 223 

3. Numerous experiments, conducted by scien- 
tific men, have established the fact that red marks, 
swellings, blisters, bleeding and wounds have been 
produced by mental suggestion. Bjornstrom, in 
his work on " Hypnotism," after recounting vari- 
ous experiments showing the effect of the imagi- 
nation on the body, says, respecting the stigmata 
of the Middle Ages : " Such marks can be pro- 
duced by hypnotism without deceit and without 
the miracles of the higher powers." Prof. Fisher 
declares : " There is no room for the suspicion 
of deceit. The idea of a strange physical effect 
of an abnormal state is more plausible." Trench 
thinks this is a reasonable view in the case of a 
man like Francis, "with a temperament so irre- 
pressible, of an organization so delicate, permeated 
through and through with the anguish of the 
Lord*s sufferings, passionately and continually 
dwelling on the one circumstance of his cruci- 
fixion." But others, despairing of any rational 
solution, cut the Gordian knot and declare that 
" the kindest thing to think about Francis is that he 
was crazy." 

4. Roman Catholics naturally reject all expla- 



224 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

nations that exclude the supernatural, for, as Father 
Candide Chalippe affirms : " Catholics ought to 
be cautious in adopting anything coming from 
heretics ; their opinions are almost always con- 
tagious." He therefore holds fast to the miracles 
in the lives of the saints, not only because he 
accepts the evidence, but because he believes these ; 
wonderful stories " add great resplendency to the : 
merits of the saints, and, consequently, give great 
weight to the example they afford us." 

It is altogether probable that each one will 
continue to view the whole affair as his predis- 
positions and religious convictions direct; some 
unconvinced by traditionary evidence and undis- 
mayed by charges of heresy ; others devoutly 
accepting every monkish miracle and marveling 
at the obstinacy of unbelief 

Two years after the event just described Francis 
was carried on a cot outside the walls of Assisi, 
where, lifting his hands he blessed his native 
city. Some few days later, on October 4, 1226, 
he passed away, exclaiming, "Welcome, Sister 
Death ! " 

Whatever we may think of the legends that 



the MENDICANT FRIARS 225 

cluster about his life, Francis himself must not 
be held responsible for all that has been written 
about him. He himself was no phantom or 
mythical being, but a real, earnest man who, 
according to his light, tried to serve his genera- 
tion. As he himself said : " A man is just so 
much and no more as he is in the sight of God." 
" Francis appears to me," says Forsyth, " a genu- 
ine^ original hero, independent, magnanimous, incor- 
ruptible. His powers seemed designed to regen- 
erate society ; but taking a wrong direction, they 
sank men into beggars." Through the mist of 
tradition the holy beggar and saintly hero shines 
forth as a loving, gentle soul, unkind to none but 
himself. However his biography may be regarded, 
his life illustrates the beauty and power of volun- 
tary renunciation, — the fountain not only of relig- 
ion but of all true nobility of character. He 
may have been ignorant, perhaps grossly so, as 
Mosheim thinks, but nevertheless he merits our 
highest praise for striving honestly to keep his 
vow of poverty in the days when worldly monks 
disgraced their sacred profession by greed, ambition, 
and lustful indulgence. 
^5 



226 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



The Franciscan Orders 

The orders which Francis founded were of 
three classes : 

I. Franciscan Friars or Order of Friars Minor, 
called also Gray or Begging Friars. The year in 
which Francis took the habit, 1208, is reckoned the 
first year of the order, but the Rule was not given 
until 1 2 10. 

This Rule, which has not been preserved, was 
very simple, and doubtless consisted of a group of 
gospel passages, bearing on the vow of poverty, 
together with a few precepts about the occupations 
of the brethren. The pope was not asked to 
sanction the Rule but only to give his approba- 
tion to the missions of the little band. Some of 
the cardinals expressed their doubts about the mode 
of life provided for in the rules. " But," replied 
Giovanni di San Paolo, " if we hold that to observe 
gospel perfection and make profession of it is an 
irrational and impossible innovation, are we not con- 
victed of blasphemy against Christ, the Author of 
the Gospel ? " 



y-^^ MENDICANT FRIARS 227 

There was also the Rule of 1221, which makes 
an intermediate stage between the first Rule and 
that which was approved by the pope November 
29, 1223. The Rule of 12 10 was thoroughly 
Franciscan. It was the expression of the passionate, 
fervent soul of Francis. It was the cry of the human 
heart for God and purity. The Rule of 1223 
shows that the church had begun to direct the move- 
ment. Sabatier says of these two rules : " At the 
bottom of it all is the antinome of law and love. 
Under the reign of law we are the mercenaries of 
God, bound down to an irksome task, but paid a 
hundred-fold, and with an indisputable right to our 
wages." Such was the conception underlying the 
Rule of 1223. That of 121c is thus described: 
" Under the rule of love we are the sons of God, 
and co-workers with Him ; we give ourselves to 
Him without bargaining and without expectation ; we 
follow Jesus, not because this is well, but because 
we cannot do otherwise, because we feel that He has 
loved us and we love Him in our turn." 

Francis would not allow his monks to be 
called Friars ; he preferred Friars Minor or Little 
Brothers as a more humble designation.* 
♦Appendix, Note F. 



228 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Ten years after the founding of the order, it 
is claimed, over five thousand friars assembled 
in Rome for the general chapter. The monks 
lodged in huts made of matting and hence 
this convention has been called the " Chapter of 
Mats/' The order was strongest numerically 
about fifty years after the death of Francis, when 
it numbered eight thousand convents and two 
hundred thousand monks. Many of its members 
were highly distinguished, such as St. Bonaventura, 
Duns Scotus, Roger Bacon and Cardinal Ximenes. 

2. Nuns of St. Clara or Poor Claras, dates 
from 121 2, but it did not receive its rule from 
Francis until 1224. The order was founded in 
the following manner : Clara, a daughter of a noble 
family, was distinguished for her beauty and by her 
love for the poor. Francis often met her, and, in 
the language of his biographer, " exhorted her to 
a contempt of the world and poured into her ears 
the sweetness of Christ." Guided, no doubt, by 
his counsel, she stole one night from her home 
to a neighboring church where Francis and his 
beggars were assembled. Her long and beautiful 
hair was cut off, while a coarse woolen gown was 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 229 

substituted for her own rich garments. Standing 
in the midst of the ragged monks, she renounced 
the dregs of Babylon and a wicked world, pledg- 
ing her future to the monastic institution. Out 
from this little church into the darkness of the 
night, Francis led this beautiful girl of seventeen 
years and committed her to a Benedictine nun- 
nery. Later on Clara became the abbess of a 
Franciscan convent at St. Damian, and the Sis- 
terhood of St. Clara was established. It was an 
order of sadness and penitential tears. It is said 
that Clara never but once (when she received the 
blessing of the pope) lifted her eyelids so that 
the color of her eyes might be discerned. 

3. The Third Order, called also " Brotherhood 
of Penitence," was composed of lay men and 
women. So many husbands and wives were 
desirous of leaving their homes in order to enter 
the monastic state, that Francis, not wishing to 
break up happy marriages, so it is said, was com- 
pelled to give these enthusiasts some sort of a 
rule by which they might compromise between 
their established life and the monastic career. 
This state of things led to the formation, in 



230 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

1 22 1, of the Third Order of St. Francis, or the 
Order of Tertiaries, in relation to the Friars 
Minor and the Poor Claras. Sabatier says this 
generally-accepted date is wrong ; that it is impos- 
sible to fix any date, for that which came to be 
known as the Third Order was born of the enthu- 
siasm excited by the preaching of Francis soon after 
his return from Rome in 1210. Candidates for 
admission into this order were required to make 
profession of all the orthodox truths, special care 
being employed to guard against the intrusion of 
heretics. Days of fasting and abstinence wen 
enjoined, and members were urged to avoid pro-^ 
fanity, the theater, dancing and law-suits. The 
order met with astonishing success, cardinals, 
bishops, emperors, empresses, kings and queens,^ 
gladly enrolling themselves among the followers 
of St. Francis. 

Dominic de Guzman y 11 70-1 221 A, D. 

Half-way between Osma and Aranda in Old 
Castile, Spain, is a little village known as *^the 
fortunate Calahorra." Here was the castle of the 



I 



i 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 231 

Guzmans, where Dominic was born. His family 
was of high rank and character, a noble house of 
warriors, statesmen and saints. If we accept the 
legends, his greatness was foreshadowed. Before 
his birth, his mother dreamed she saw her son 
under the figure of a black-and-white dog, with 
a torch in his mouth. " A true dream,'' says 
Milman, " for he will scent out heresy and apply 
the torch to the faggots ; '' but, as will be seen 
later, this observation does not rest on undisputed 
evidence. 

In the year 1 191, when Spain was desolated by 
a terrible famine, Dominic was just finishing his 
theological studies. He gave away his money 
and sold his clothes, his furniture and even his 
precious manuscripts, that he might relieve dis- 
tress. When his companions expressed astonish- 
ment that he should sell his books, Dominic 
replied : " Would you have me study off these 
dead skins, when men are dying of hunger ? " 
This noble utterance is cherished by his admirers 
as the first saying from his lips that has passed 
to posterity. 

Dominic was educated in the schools of Palen- 



232 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

cia, afterwards a university, where he devoted six 
years to the arts and four to theology. In 1194, 
when twenty-five years of age, Dominic became a 
canon regular, at Osma, under the rule of St. 
Augustine. Nine years after he accompanied his 
bishop, Don Diego, on an embassy for the king 
of Castile. When they crossed the Pyrenees they 
found themselves in an atmosphere of heresy. 
The country was filled with preachers of strange 
doctrines, who had little respect for Dominic, his 
bishop, or their Roman pontiff. The experiences 
of this journey inspired in Dominic a desire to 
aid in the extermination of heresy. He was also 
deeply impressed by an important and significant 
observation. Many of these heretical preachers 
were not ignorant fanatics, but well-trained and 
cultured men. Entire communities seemed to be 
possessed by a desire for knowledge and for right- 
eousness. Dominic clearly perceived that only 
preachers of a high order, capable of advancing 
reasonable argument, could overthrow the Albi- 
gensian heresy. 

It would be impossible, in a few words, to tell 
the whole story of this Albigensian movement. 



r>^^ MENDICANT FRIARS 233 

Undoubtedly the term stood for a variety of 
theological opinions, all of which were in opposition 
to the teachings of Rome. "From the very invec- 
tives of their enemies," says Hallam, " and the 
acts of the Inquisition, it is manifest that almost 
every shade of heterodoxy was found among these 
dissidents, till it vanished in a simple protestation 
against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy." 
Many of the tenets of these enthusiasts were 
undoubtedly borrowed from the ancient Manicheism, 
and would be pronounced heretical by every modern 
evangelical denomination. But associated with those 
holding such doctrines were numerous reformers, 
whose chief offense consisted in their incipient 
Protestantism. However heretical any of these 
sects may have been, it is impossible to make 
them out enemies to the social order, except as 
all opponents of established religious traditions 
create disturbance. " What these bodies held in 
common," says Hardwick, " and what made them 
equally the prey of the inquisitor, was their 
unwavering belief in the corruption of the medi- 
eval church, especially as governed by the Roman 
pontiffs." 



234 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

In 1208 Dominic visited Languedoc a second 
time, and on his way he encountered the papal 
legates returning in pomp to Rome, foiled in 
their attempt to crush this growing schism. To 
them he administered his famous rebuke: "It is 
not the display of power and pomp, cavalcades 
of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by 
gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win prose- 
lytes ; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic 
humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but 
by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, 
humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanc- 
tity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth." It 
is extremely unfortunate for the reputation of 
Dominic that he ever departed from the spirit 
of these noble words, which so clearly state the 
conditions of true religious progress. 

Dominic now gathered about him a few men 
of like spirit and began his task of preaching 
down heresy. But "the enticing words of man's 
wisdom '* failed to win the Albigensians from 
what they believed to be the words of God. So, 
unmindful of his admonition to the papal legates, 
Dominic obtained permission of Innocent III. to 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS o.i,c^ 

hold courts, before which he might summon all 
persons suspected of heresy. When eloquence 
and courts failed, the pope let loose the " dogs of 
war/* Then followed twenty years of frightful 
carnage, during which hundreds of thousands of 
heretics were slain, and many cities were laid waste by 
fire and sword. *' This was to punish a fanaticism,'* 
says Hallam, "ten thousand times more innocent 
than their own, and errors which, according to 
the worst imputations, left the laws of humanity 
and the peace of social life unimpaired." Peace 
was concluded in 1229, but the persecution of 
heretics went on. 

What part Dominic personally had in these 
bloody proceedings is litigated history. His 
admirers strive to rescue his memory from the 
charge that he was ^' a cruel and bloody man." 
It is argued that while the pope and temporal 
princes carried on the sanguinary war against the 
heretics, Dominic confined himself to pleading 
with them in a spirit of true Christian love. 
He was a minister of mercy, not an avenging 
angel, sword in hand. It has to be conceded 
that the constant tradition of the Dominican 



2^6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

order that Dominic was the first Inquisitor, whether 
he bore the title or not, rests upon good author- 
ity. But what was the nature of the office as 
held by the saint ? As far as Dominic was con- 
cerned, it is argued by his friends that the office 
" was limited to the reconciliation of heretics and had 
nothing to do with their punishment '' It is also 
claimed that while Dominic did impose penances, in 
some cases public flagellation, no evidence can be 
produced showing that he ever delivered one heretic 
to the flames. Those who were burned were 
condemned by secular courts, and on the ground 
that they were not only heretics but enemies of 
the public peace and perpetrators of enormous 
crimes. 

But while it may not be proved that Dominic 
himself passed the sentence of death or applied 
the torch to the faggots with his own hand, he 
is by no means absolved from all complicity in 
those frightful slaughters, or from all responsibil- 
ity for the subsequent establishment of the Holy 
Inquisition. The principles governing the Inqui- 
sition were practically those upon which Dominic 
proceeded ; the germs of the later atrocities are 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 237 

to be found in his aims and methods. By what 
a narrow margin does Dominic escape the charge 
of cruelty when it is boasted " that he resolutely 
insisted on no sentence being carried out until all 
means had been tried by which the conversion of a 
prisoner could be effected." Another statement also 
contains an inkling of a significant fact, namely, 
that secular judges and princes were constantly under 
the influence of the monks and other ecclesiastical 
persons, who incited them to wage war, and to 
massacre, in the Albigensian war as in other cru- 
sades against heresy. No word from Dominic 
can be produced indicating that he remonstrated 
with the pope, or that he tried to stop the cru- 
sade. In a few instances he seems to have inter- 
ceded with the crazed soldiery for the lives of 
women and children. But he did not oppose the 
bloody crusade itself He was constantly either 
with the army or following in its wake. He often 
sat on the bench at the trial of dissenters. He 
remained the life-long friend of Simon de Mont- 
fort, the cruel agent of the papacy, and he blessed 
the marriage of his sons and baptized his daughter. 
Special courts for trying heretics were established, 



238 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

previous to the more complete organization of tl 
Inquisition, and in these he held a commission. 

The Holy Office of the Inquisition was made a 
permanent tribunal by Gregory IX., in 1233, twelve 
years after the death of Dominic, and curiously 
enough, in the same year in which he was canonized. 
The Catholic Bollandists claim that although the 
title of Inquisitor was of later date than Dominic, 
yet the office was in existence, and that the splendor 
of the Holy Inquisition owes its beginning to that 
saint. Certain it is that the administration of the 
Inquisition was mainly in the hands of Dominican 
monks. 

In view of all these facts. Professor Allen is 
justified in his conclusions respecting Dominic and 
his share in the persecution of heretics : " What- 
ever his own sweet and heavenly spirit according to 
Catholic eulogists, his name is a synonym of bleak 
and intolerant fanaticism. It is fatally associated 
with the blackest horrors of the crusade against the 
Albigenses, as well as with the infernal skill and 
deadly machinery of the Inquisition." 

In 1 2 14, Dominic established himself, with six 
followers, in the house of Peter Cellani, a rich resi- 



r>^^ MENDICANT FRIARS 239 

dent of Toulouse. Eleven years of active and 
public life had passed since the Subprior of Osma 
had forsaken the quietude of the monastery. He 
now resumed his life of retirement and subjected 
himself and his companions to the monastic rules 
of prayer and penance. But the restless spirit of 
the man could not long remain content with the 
seclusion and inactivity of a monk's life. The 
scheme of establishing an order of Preaching Friars 
began to assume definite shape in his mind. He 
dreamed of seven stars enlightening the world, which 
represented himself and his six friends. The final 
result of his deliberations was the organization of 
his order, and the appearance of Dominic in the 
city of Rome, in 121 5, to secure the approval of the 
pope. Innocent III. Although some describe his 
reception as " most cordial and flattering," yet it 
required supernatural interference to induce the 
pope to grant even his approval of the new order. 
It was not formally confirmed until 1216 by Hon- 
orius III. 

Dominic now made his headquarters at Rome, 
although he traveled extensively in the interests of 
his growing brotherhood of monks. He was made 



240 MONKS ayid MONASTERIES 

Master of the Sacred Palace, an important offici 1 
post, including among its functions the censorsh: 
of the press. It has ever since been occupied t 
members of the Dominican order. 

Throughout his Hfe Dominic is said to ha^ 
zealously practiced rigorous self-denial. He wore . 
hair shirt, and an iron chain around his loins, whic - 
he never laid aside, even in sleep. He abstains ' 
from meat and observed stated fasts and periods c 
silence. He selected the worst accommodatioi 
and the meanest clothes, and never allowed himse 
the luxury of a bed. When traveling, he beguik 
the journey with spiritual instruction and prayer 
As soon as he passed the limits of towns and vi 
lages, he took off his shoes, and, however shai 
the stones or thorns, he trudged on his way bar 
footed. Rain and other discomforts elicited from h;^; 
lips nothing but praises to God. 

Death came at the age of fifty-one and found hir 
exhausted with the austerities and labors of h^- 
eventful career. He had reached the convent ci 
St. Nicholas, at Bologna, weary and sick with 
fever. He refused the repose of a bed and bac 
the monks lay him on some sacking stretched upo 



"The MENDICANT FRIARS 241 

le ground. The brief time that remained to him 
as spent in exhorting his followers to have charity, 
) guard their humility, and to make their treasure 
ut of poverty. Lying in ashes upon the floor he 
assed away at noon, on the sixth of August, 1221. 
le was canonized by Gregory IX., in 1234. 

The Dominican Orders 

The origin of the Order of the Preaching Friars 
as already been described. It is not necessary to 
^ell upon the constitution of this order, because 
I all essential respects it was like that of the Fran- 
scans. The order is ruled by a general and is 
ivided into provinces, governed by provincials, 
'he head of each house is called a prior. Dominic 
iopted the rules laid down by St. Augustine, 
ecause the pope ordered him to follow some one 
f the older monastic codes, but he also added regu- 
itions of his own. 

Soon after the founding of the order, bands of 

lonks were sent out to Paris, to Rome, to Spain 

id to England, for the purpose of planting colonies 

I the chief seats of learning. The order produced 
16 



242 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

many eminent scholars, some of whom were Thomas 
Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Echard, Tauler and 
Savonarola. 

As among the Franciscans, there was also an 
Order of Nuns, founded in 1206, and a Third 
Order, called the Militia of Jesus Christ, which was 
organized in 121 8. 

"The Success of the Mendicant Orders 

In 1 215, Innocent III. being pope, the Lateran 
council passed the following law : " Whereas the 
excessive diversity of these [monastic] institutions 
begets confusion, no new foundations of this sort 
must be formed for the future ; but whoever wishes 
to become a monk must attach himself to some 
of the already existing rules." This same pope 
approved the two Mendicant orders ^hem, 

it is true, to unite themselves to f 
orders ; but, nevertheless, they 
organizations, eclipsing all previous socicuos in 
achievements. The reason for this disregard of tu^ 
Lateran decree is doubtless to be found in the 
alarming condition of religious affairs at that time. 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 243 

and in the hope held out to Rome by the Mendi- 
cants, of reforming the monasteries and crushing 
the heretics. 

The failure of the numerous and varied efforts to 
reform the monastic institution and the danger to 
the church arising from the unwonted stress laid 
upon poverty by different schismatic religious socie- 
ties, necessitated the adoption of radical measures 
by the church to preserve its influence. At this 
juncture the Mendicant friars appeared. The con- 
ditions demanded a modification of the monastic 
principle which had hitherto exalted a life of retire- 
ment. Seclusion in the cloister was no longer pos- 
sible in the view of the remarkable changes in 
religious thought and practice. 

Innocent III. was wise enough to perceive the 
immediate utility of the new societies based upon 
claims to extraordinary humility and poverty. The 
Mendicant orders were, in themselves, not only a 
rebuke to the luxurious indolence and shameful 
laxity of the older orders, but when sanctioned 
by the ''hurch, the existence of the new societies 
attested Rome's desire to maintain the highest 
and the purest standards of monastic life. Hence, 



244 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

the Preaching Friars were permitted to reproach 
the clergy and the monks for their vices and 
corruptions. 

" The effect of such a band of missionaries," 
says John Stuart Mill, " must have been great in 
rousing and feeding dormant devotional feelings. 
They were not less influential in regulating those 
feelings, and turning into the established Catholic 
channels those vagaries of private enthusiasm which 
might well endanger the church, since they already 
threatened society itself." 

Two novel monastic features, therefore, now 
appear for the first time: i. The substitution of 
itineracy for the seclusion of the cloister; and 
2. The abolition of endowments. 

I. The older orders had their traveling mission- 
aries, but the general practice was to remain shut up 
within the monastic walls. The Mendicants at the 
start had no particular abiding place, but were 
bound to travel everywhere, preaching and teach- 
ing. It was distinctly the mission of these monks 
to visit the camps, the towns, cities and villages, the 
market places, the universities, the homes and the 
churches, to preach and to minister to the sick and 



i:he MENDICANT FRIARS 245 

the poor. They neither loved the seclusion of the 
cell nor sought it. Theirs to tramp the dusty 
roads, with their capacious bags, begging and teach- 
ing. Only by this itinerant method could the 
people be reached and the preachers of heresy be 
encountered. 

2. One of the chief sources of strength in the 
heretical sects was the justness of their attack upon 
the Catholic monastic orders, whose immense riches 
belied their vows of poverty. The heretics prac- 
ticed austerities and adopted a simplicity of life that 
won the hearts of the people, by reason of its con- 
trast to the loose habits of the monks and clergy. 
Since it was impossible to reform the older orders, 
it became absolutely essential to the success of the 
Mendicants that they should rigorously respect the 
neglected discipline. As the abuse of the vow of 
poverty was particularly common, the Mendicants 
naturally emphasized this vow. 

While it is true that a begging monk was by no 
means unknown, yet now, for the first time, was the 
practice of mendicity formally adopted by entire 
orders. Owing to the excessive multiplication of 
mendicant societies. Pope Gregory X., at a general 



246 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

council held at Lyons in 1272, attempted to check 
the growing evil. The number of Mendicant 
orders was confined to four, viz., the Dominicans, 
the Franciscans, the Carmelites and the Augustinians 
or Hermits of Augustine. The Council of Trent 
confined mendicity to the Observantines and Capu- 
chins, since the other societies had practically aban- 
doned their original interpretation of their vow of 
poverty and had acquired permanent property. 

When Francis tried to enforce the rule of poverty, 
his rigor gave rise to most serious dissensions, which 
began in his own lifetime and ended after his death 
in open schism. Some of his followers were not 
pleased with his views on that subject. They resisted 
his extreme strictness, and after his death they con- 
tinued to advocate the holding of property. The 
popes tried to settle the quarrel, but ever and anon it 
broke out afresh with volcanic fierceness. They 
finally interpreted the rule of poverty to mean that 
the friars could not hold property in their own 
names, but they might enjoy its use. Under this 
interpretation of the rule, the beggars soon became 
very rich. Matthew of Paris said : " The friars who 
have been founded hardly forty years have built even 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 247 

in the present day in England residences as lofty as 
the palaces of our kings." But the better element 
among the Franciscans refused to consent to such 
a palpable evasion of the rule. A portion of this 
class separated themselves from the Franciscans, 
rejected their authority, and formed a new sect 
called the Fratricelli^ or Little Brothers. It is very 
important to keep the history of this name clearly 
in mind, for it frequently appears in the Reforma- 
tion period and has been the cause of much mis- 
understanding. The word " Fratricelli " came to be 
a term of derision applied to any one affecting the 
dress or the habits of the monks. When heretical 
sects arose, it was applied to them as a stigma, but it 
was used first by a sect of rigid Franciscans who 
deserted their order, adopted this name as their own, 
and exulted in its use. The quarrel among the 
monks led to a variety of complications and is intri- 
cately interwoven with the political and religious 
history of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries. " These rebellious Franciscans," says 
Mosheim, "though fanatical and superstitious in 
some respects, deserve an eminent rank among those 
who prepared the way for the Reformation in 



248 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Europe, and who excited in the minds of the people 
a just aversion to Rome." 

The Mendicants were especially active in educa- 
tional work. This is to be attributed to several 
causes. Unquestionably the general and increasing 
interest in theological doctrines and the craving for 
knowledge affected the monastic orders. Europe 
was just arousing from her medieval slumbers. 
The faint rays of the Reformation dawn were streak- 
ing the horizon. The intellect as well as the con- 
science was touched by the Spirit of God. The 
revolt against moral iniquity was often accompanied 
by skepticism concerning the authority and dogmas 
of the church. Questions were being asked that 
ignorant monks could not answer. Too long had 
the church ignored these symptoms of the approach 
of a new order of things. The church was forced 
to meet the heretics on their own ground, to offset 
the example of their simplicity and purity of life 
by exalting the neglected standards of self-denial, 
and to silence them, if possible, by exposing their 
errors. Then came the Franciscans, with their 
austere simplicity and their insistence upon poverty. 
Then also appeared the Dominicans, or as they were 



I 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 249 

called, ''The Watch-dogs of the Church/' who not 
only barked the church awake, but tried to devour 
the heretics. 

Francis halted for some time before giving encour- 
agement to educational enterprises. A life of devo- 
tion and prayer attracted him, because, as he said, 
" Prayer purifies the affections, strengthens us in 
virtue, and unites us to the sovereign good.'' But, 
he went on, " Preaching renders the feet of the 
spiritual man dusty ; it is an employment which 
dissipates and distracts, and which causes regular 
discipline to be relaxed." After consulting Brother 
Sylvester and Sister Clara, he decided to adopt their 
counsel and entered upon a ministry of preaching. 
The example and success of the Dominicans prob- 
ably inspired the Franciscans to give themselves 
more and more to intellectual work. 

Both orders received appointments in all the 
leading universities, but they did not gain this 
ascendency without a severe conflict. The regular 
professors and the clergy were jealous of them for 
various causes, and resisted them at every point. 
The quarrel between the Dominicans and the Uni- 
versity of Paris is the most famous of these 



250 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

struggles. It began in 1228 and did not end until 
1259. '^^^ Dominicans claimed the right to two 
theological professorships. One had been taken 
from them, and a law was passed that no religious 
order should have what these friars demanded. 
The Dominicans rebelled and the University passed 
sentences of expulsion. Innocent IV., wishing to 
become master of Italy, sided with the University, 
but the next month he was dead, — in answer to 
their prayers, said the Dominicans, but rumor 
hinted an even blacker cause. The thirty-one years 
of the struggle dragged wearily on, disturbed by 
papal bulls, appeals, pamphlets and university 
slogans. At last Alexander IV., in 1255, decided 
that the Dominicans might have the second profess- 
orship and also any other they thought proper. The 
noise of conflict now grew louder and boded ill for 
the peace of the church. The pulpits flashed forth 
fiery utterances. The monks were assailed in every 
quarter. William of Amour published his essay on 
"The Perils of the Last Times," in which he 
claimed that the perilous times predicted by the 
Apostle Paul were now fulfilled by these begging 
friars. He exposed their iniquities and bitterly 



rhe MENDICANT FRIARS 251 

complained of their arrogance and vice. His book 
was burned and its author banished. Although 
meaning to be a friend of Rome, he unconsciously- 
contributed his share to the coming reform. In 
1259, Rome thundered so loud that all Europe was 
terrified and the University was awed into sub- 
mission. 

Another interesting feature in the history of their 
educational enterprises is the entrance of the Mendi- 
cants into England, where they acted a leading part in 
the educational and political history of the country. 
The Dominicans settled first at Oxford, in 1221. 
The Franciscans, after a short stay at Canterbury, 
went to Oxford in 1224. The story of how the 
two Gray friars journeyed from Canterbury to 
Oxford runs as follows : " These two forerunners of 
a famous brotherhood, being not far from Oxford, 
lost their way and came to a farmhouse of the 
Benedictines. It was nearly night and raining. 
They gently knocked, and asked admittance for 
God's sake. The porter gazed on their patched 
robes and beggarly aspect and supposed them to be 
mimics or despised persons. The prior, pleased 
with the tidings, invited them in. But instead of 



252 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

sportively performing, these two friars insisted, 
with sedate countenances, that they were men of 
God. Whereat the Benedictines in jealousy, and 
displeased to be cheated out of their expected fun, 
kicked and buffeted the two poor monks and turned 
them out of doors. One young monk pitied them 
and smuggled them into a hay-loft where we trust 
they slept soundly and safe from the cold and rain." 
The two friars finally reached Oxford and were well 
received by their Dominican brothers. Such was 
the simple beginning of a brilliant career that was 
profoundly to affect the course of English history. 
Both at Cambridge and Oxford the monastic orders 
exercised a remarkable influence. Traces of their 
labors and power may still be seen in the names of 
the colleges, and in the religious portions of the 
university discipline. They built fine edifices and 
manned their schools with the best teachers, so that 
they became great rivals of the regular colleges which 
did not have the funds necessary to compete with 
these wealthy beggars. Another cause of their rapid 
progress was the exodus of students from Paris to 
England. During the quarrel at Paris, Henry III. 
of England offered many inducements to the 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 253 

students, who left for England in large numbers. 
Many of them were prejudiced in favor of the 
friars, and they naturally drifted to the monastic 
college. The secular clergy charged the friars with 
inducing the college students to enter the monas- 
teries or to turn begging monks. The pope, the 
king, and the parliament became involved in the 
struggle, which grew more bitter as the years 
passed. After a while Wyclif appeared, and when 
he began his mighty attack upon the friars the joy 
with which the professors viewed the struggle can 
be appreciated. 

'The Decline of the Mendicants 



V 



The Mendicant friars won their fame by faith- 
ful and earnest labors. Men admired them because 
they identified themselves with the lowest of man- 
kind and heroically devoted themselves to the poor 
and sick. These " sturdy beggars," as Francis 
called his companions, were contrasted with the lazy, 
rich, and, too often, licentious monks of the other 
orders. Everywhere the friars were received with 
veneration and joy. The people sought burial in 



254 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

their rags, believing that, clothed in the garments 
of these holy beggars, they would enter paradise 
more speedily. 

Instead of seeking the seclusion of the convent 
to save his own soul, the friar displayed remark- 
able zeal trying to save mankind. He became 
the arbiter in the quarrels of princes, the prime 
mover in treaties between nations, and the indis- 
pensable counselor in political complications. The 
pope employed him as his authorized agent in 
the most difficult matters touching the welfare 
of the church. His influence upon the com- 
mon people is thus described by the historian 
Green : " The theory of government wrought out 
in the cell and lecture-room was carried over the 
length and breadth of the land by the Mendicant 
brother begging his way from town to town, chat- 
ting with the farmer or housewife at the cottage 
door and setting up his portable pulpit in village 
green or market-place. The rudest countryman 
learned the tale of a king's oppression or a patriot's 
hope as he listened to the rambling, passionate, 
humorous discourse of the beggar friar." 

By these methods the Mendicants were enabled 



The MENDICANT FRIARS 255 

to render most efficient service to their patrons at 
Rome in their efforts to establish their temporal 
power. They were, in fact, before the Reformation, 
just what the Jesuits afterwards became, " the very 
soul of the hierarchy." Yes, they were immensely, 
prodigiously successful. The popes hastened to do 
them honor. Because the friars were such enthusi- 
astic supporters of the church, the popes poured 
gold and privileges into their capacious coffers. 
Thankful peasants threw in their mites and the 
admiring noble bestowed his estates. 

The secular clergy, with envy and chagrin, awoke 
to the alarming fact that the beggars had won the 
hearts of the people ; their hatred was increased by 
the fact that when the Roman pontiffs enriched 
these indefatigable toilers and valiant foes of heresy, 
they did so at the expense of the bishops and clergy, 
which, perhaps, was robbing Paul to pay Peter. 

Baluzii says : " No religious order had the distri- 
bution of so many and such ample indulgences as 
the Franciscans. In place of fixed revenues, lucra- 
tive indulgences were placed in their hands.'* So 
ill-judged was the distribution of these favors that 
discipline was overturned. Many churchmen, feel- 



256 MONKS ^»^ MONASTERIES 

ing that their rights were being encroached upon, 
complained bitterly, and resolved on retaliation. It 
is just here that a potent cause of the Mendicant's 
fall is to be found. He helped to dig his own 
grave. 

Having elevated monasticism to the zenith of its 
power, the Mendicant orders, like all the other 
monastic brotherhoods, entered upon their shameful 
decline, The unexampled prosperity, so inconsist- 
ent with the original intentions of the founders of 
the orders, was attended by corruptions and excesses. 
The decrees of councils, the denunciations of popes 
and high ecclesiastical dignitaries, the satires of 
literature, the testimony of chroniclers and the 
formation of reformatory orders, constitute a body 
of irrefragable evidence proving that the lowest 
level of sensuality, superstition and ignorance had 
been reached. The monks and friars lost whatever 
vigor and piety they ever possessed. 

It is again evident that a monk cannot serve 
God and mammon. Success ruins him. Wealth 
and popular favor change his character. The 
people slowly realize the fact that the fat and 
lazy medieval monk is not dead, after all, but 



r;^(f MENDICANT FRIARS 257 

has simply changed his name to that of Begging 
Friar. As Allen neatly observes : " Their gray gown 
and knotted cord wrapped a spiritual pride and 
capacity of bigotry, fully equal to the rest." 

Here, then, are the ^' sturdy beggars " of Fran- 
cis, dwelling in palatial convents, arrogant and 
proud, trampling their ideal into the dust. Thus 
it came to pass in accordance with the principle 
stated at the beginning of this chapter, that when 
the ideal became a cloak to cover up sham, decay 
had set in, and ruin, even though delayed for years, 
was sure to come. The poor, sad-faced, honest, 
faithful friar everybody praised, loved and rever- 
enced. The insolent, contemptuous, rich monk all 
men loathed. So a change of character in the friar 
transformed the songs of praise into shouts of con- 
demnation. *T"hose golden rays from the morning 
sun of the Reformation are ascending toward the 
highest heaven, and daybreak is near. 

I? 



VI 

rHE SOCIETT OF JESUS 

IN MANY RESPECTS it would be perfectly 
proper to consider the Mendicant orders as 
the last stage in the evolution of the monas- 
tic institution. Although the Jesuitical 
system rests upon the three vows of poverty, celi- 
bacy and obedience, yet the ascetic principle is 
reduced to a minimum in that society. Father 
Thomas E. Sherman, the son of the famous gen- 
eral, and a Jesuit of distinguished ability, has ; 
declared : " We are not, as some seem to think, a i 
semi-military band of men, like the Templars of the 
Middle Ages. We are not a monastic order, seek- 
ing happiness in lonely withdrawal from our fellows. 
Our enemies within and without the church would 
like to make us monks, for then we would be com- 
paratively useless, since that is not our end or aim. 

. . . We are regulars in the army of Christ; 

258 



rhe SOCIETY OF JESUS 259 

that is, men vowed to poverty, chastity and obedi- 
ence ; we are a collegiate body with the right to 
teach granted by the Catholic church/' * 

The early religious orders were based upon the 
idea of retirement from the world for the purpose 
of acquiring holiness. But as has already been 
shown, the constant tendency of the religious com- 
munities was toward participation in the world's 
affairs. This tendency became very marked among 
the friars, who traveled from place to place, and 
occupied important university positions, and it 
reaches its culmination in the Society of Jesus. 
Retirement among the Jesuits is employed merely 
as a preparation for active life. Constant inter- 
course with society was provided for in the consti- 
tution of the order. Bishop John J. Keane, a 
Roman Catholic authority, says : " The clerks 
regular, instituted principally since the sixteenth 
century, were neither monks nor friars, but priests 
living in common and busied with the work of the 
ministry. The Society of Jesus is one of the 
orders of clerks regular." 

Other differences between the monastic commu- 

*Appendix, Note G. 



26o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

nities and the Jesuits are to be observed. The Jesuit 
discards the monastic gown, and is decidedly averse 
to the old monastic asceticism, with its rigorous and 
painful treatment of the body. While the older 
religious societies were essentially democratic in 
spirit and government, the monks sharing in the 
control of the monastic property and participating 
in the election of superiors, the Jesuitical system 
is intensely monarchical, a despotism pure and 
simple. In the older orders, the welfare of the 
individual was jealously guarded and his sanctifica- 
tion was sought. Among the Jesuits the individual 
is nothing, the corporate body everything. Admis- 
sion to the monastic orders was encouraged and 
easily obtained. The novitiate of the Jesuits is 
long and difficult. Access to the highest grades of 
the order is granted only to those who have served 
the society many weary years. 

But in spite of such variations from the old 
monastic type, the Society of Jesus would doubtless 
never have appeared, had not the way for its exis- 
tence been paved by previous monastic societies. 
Its aims and its methods were the natural sequence 
of monastic history. They were merely a develop- 



hrhe SOCIETY OF JESUS 261 

ment of past experiences, for the objects of the 
society were practically the objects of the Mendi- 
cants ; the vows were the same with a change of 
emphasis. The abandonment of austerities as a 
means of salvation or spiritual power was the nat- 
ural fruit of past experiments that had proved the 
uselessness of asceticism merely for the sake of 
acquiring a spirit of self-denial. The extirpation of 
heresy undertaken by Ignatius had already been 
attempted by the friars, while the education of the 
young had long been carried on with considerable 
success by the Benedictine and Dominican monks. 
The spirit of its founder, however, gave the 
Society of Jesus a unique character, and monasti- 
cism now passed out from the cell forever. The 
Jesuit may fairly be regarded as a monk, unlike any 
of his predecessors but nevertheless the legitimate 
fruit of centuries of monastic experience. 

Ignatius de Loyola y 149 1 -1556 A,D, 

Inigo Lopez de Recalde, or Loyola, as he is 
commonly known, was born at Guipuzcoa, in Spain, 
in 1 49 1. He was educated as a page in the court 



262 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

of Ferdinand the Catholic. He afterwards became 
a soldier and led a very wild life until his twenty- 
ninth year. During the siege of Pamplona, in 1 5 2 1 , 
he was severely wounded, and while convalescing 
he was given lives of Christ and of the saints to 
read. His perusal of these stories of spiritual 
combat inspired a determination to imitate the 
glorious achievements of the saints. For a while 
the thirst for military renown and an attraction 
toward a lady of the court, restrained his spiritual 
impulses. But overcoming these obstacles, he reso- 
lutely entered upon his new career. 

Sometime after he visited the sanctuary of Mont- 
serrat, where he hung his shield and sword upon the 
altar of the Virgin Mary and gave his oath of fealty 
to the service of God. A tablet, erected by the 
abbot of the monastery in commemoration of this 
event, reads as follows : " Here, blessed Ignatius 
of Loyola, with many prayers and tears, devoted 
himself to God and the Virgin. Here, as with 
spiritual arms, he fortified himself in sackcloth, 
and spent the vigil of the night. Hence he went 
forth to found the Society of Jesus, in the year 
MDXXII." 



"The SOCIETY OF JESUS 1(^1^ 

After spending ten months in Manresa, Loyola 
went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, intending 
to remain there, but he was sent home by the 
Eastern monks, and reached Italy in 1524. 

Now began his struggle for an education. At 
the age of thirty-three he took his seat on the 
school-bench at Barcelona. In 1526 he entered the 
University at Alcala. He was here looked upon as 
a dangerous innovator, and was imprisoned six 
weeks, by order of the Inquisition, for preaching 
without authority, since he was not in holy orders. 
After his release he attended the University of 
Salamanca, but he finally took his degree of Master 
of Arts at the University of Paris, in 1533. 

During this period he was several times impris- 
oned as a dangerous fanatic, but each time he 
succeeded in securing a verdict in his favor. The 
hostility to Ignatius and his work forms a strange 
parallel to the bitter antagonism which his society 
has always encountered. 

Nine men, among whom was Francis Xavier, 
afterwards widely renowned, had been chosen with 
great care, as the companions of Ignatius. He 
called them together in July, 1534, and on August 



264 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

1 5th of the same year he selected six of them and 
bade them follow him to the Church of the Blessed 
Virgin, at Montmartre, in Paris. There and then 
they bound themselves to renounce all their goods, 
and to make a voyage to Jerusalem, in order to 
convert the Eastern infidels ; if that scheme proved 
impracticable, they agreed to offer themselves to I 
the sovereign pontiff^ for any service he might 
require of them. War prevented the journey to I 
the Holy Land, and so, after passing through a 
variety of experiences, Ignatius and his companions 
met at Rome, to secure the sanction of Pope Paul 
III. for the new society. After a year and a half 
of deliberation and discussion a favorable decision 
was reached, which was, no doubt, partly facilitated 
by the growth of the Reformation. The new 
society was chartered on September 27, 1540, for 
the "defence and advance of the faith." 

Ignatius was elected as the general of the order 
and entered upon his duties, April 17, 1541. He 
soon prepared a constitution which was not adopted 
until after his death, and then in an amended form. 
Loyola ended his remarkable and stormy career. 



<The SOCIETY OF JESUS 265 



Constitution and Polity of the Order 

The Institutum^ which contains the governing laws 
of the society, is a complex document consisting of 
papal bulls and decrees, a list of the privileges 
which have been granted to the order, ten chapters 
of rules, decrees of the general congregations, the 
plan of studies (ratio studiorum)^ and three ascetic 
writings, of which the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius 
constitute the chief part. 

The society is distributed into six grades : novices, 
scholastics, temporal coadjutors, spiritual coadju- 
tors, professed of the three vows, and professed of 
the four vows. 

The professed form only a small percentage of 
the entire body, and constitute a sort of religious 
aristocracy, from which the officers of the society 
are selected. Only the professed of the fourth 
vow, who add to the three vows a pledge of 
unconditional obedience to the pope, possess the full 
rights of membership. This final grade cannot be 
reached until the age of forty-five, so that if the 
candidate enters the order at the earliest age per- 



0.66 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

missible, fourteen, he has been on probation thirty- 
one years when he reaches the final grade. 

The society is ruled by a general, to whom 
unconditional obedience is required. The prov- 
inces, into which the order is divided, are governed 
by provincials, who must report monthly to the 
general. The heads of all houses and colleges must 
report weekly to their provincials. An elaborate 
system of checks and espionage is employed to 
ensure the perfect working of this complex ecclesi- 
astical machinery. Fraud or evasion is carefully 
guarded against, and every possible means is 
employed to enable the general to keep himself fully 
informed concerning the minutest details of the 
society's affairs. 

'The Vow of Obedience 

That which has imparted a peculiar character to 
the Jesuit and contributed more than any other 
force to his success, is the insistence upon un.ques- 
tioning submission to the will of the superior. 
This emphasis on the vow of obedience deserves, 
therefore, special consideration. Loyola, in his 



r-^^ SOCIETY OF JESUS 267 

" Spiritual Exercises," commanded the novice to 
preserve his freedom of mind, but it is difficult for 
the fairest critic to conceive of such a possibility in 
the light of Loyola's rule of obedience, which reads : 
" I ought not to be my own, but His who created 
me, and his too by whose means God governs me, 
yielding myself to be moulded in his hands like so 
much wax. ... I ought to be like a corpse, 
which has neither will nor understanding, or like a 
small crucifix, which is turned about at the will of 
him who holds it, or like a staiF in the hands of an 
old man, who uses it as may best assist or please 
him." 

As an example of the kind of obedience demanded 
of the Jesuit, Loyola cited the obedience of Abra- 
ham, who, when he believed that Jehovah com- 
manded him to commit the crime of infanticide, 
was ready to obey. The thirteenth of the rules 
appended to the Spiritual Exercises says : " If the 
Church shall have defined that to be black which to 
our eyes appears white, we ought to pronounce the 
thing in question black." 

Loyola is reported as having said to his secretary 
that " in those who offer themselves he looked less 



268 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

1' 
to purely natural goodness than to firmness of 

character and ability for business." But that he 
did not mean independent firmness of character 
is clearly seen in the obvious attempt of the order 
to destroy that noble and true independence 
which is the crowning glory of a lofty character. 
The discipline is marvelously contrived to " scoop 
the will " out of the individual. Count Paul von 
Hoensbroech, who recently seceded from the 
society, has set forth his reasons for so doing in two 
articles which appeared in the " Preussische Jahr- 
biicher." A most interesting discussion of these 
articles, in the " New World," for December, 1894, 
places the opinions of the Count at our disposal. 
It is quite evident that he is no passionate, blind 
foe of the society. His tone is temperate and his 
praises cordially given. While recognizing the 
genius shown in the machinery of the society and 
the nobility of the real aims of the Jesuitical disci- 
pline, and while protesting against the unfounded 
charges of impurity, and other gross calumnies 
against the order. Count Paul nevertheless maintains 
that it " rests on so unworthy a depreciation of indi- 
viduality, and so exaggerated an apprehension of the 



the SOCIETY OF JESUS 269 

virtue of obedience, as to render it unfit for its 
higher ends." The uniform of the Jesuit is not an 
external garb, but such freedom is insignificant in the 
light of the " veritable strait-jacket/* which is placed 
upon the inward man. The unformed and pliable 
novice, usually between the ages of sixteen and 
twenty, is subjected to " a skillful, energetic and 
unremitting assault upon personal independence." 
Every device that a shrewd and powerful intellect 
could conceive of is employed to break up the 
personal will. " The Jesuit scheme prescribes the 
gait, the way to hold the hands, to incline the head, 
to direct the eyes, to hold and move the person." 

Every novice must go through the " Spiritual 
Exercises " in complete solitude, twice in his life. 
They occupy thirty days. The '^ Account of the 
Conscience " is of the very essence of Jesuitism. 
The ordinary confession, familiar to every Catholic, 
is as nothing compared with this marvelous inquiry 
into the secrets of the human heart and mind. 
Every fault, sin, virtue, wish, design, act and 
thought, — good, bad or indifferent, — must be dis- 
closed, and this revelation of the inner life may be 
used against him who makes it, " for the good of 



270 MONKS and MONASTERIES | 

the order/' Thus, after fifteen years of such inge- 
nious and detailed discipline, the young man's intel- 
lectual and moral faculties are moulded into Jesuitical 
forms. He is no longer his own. He is a pliable 
and obedient, even though it may be a virtuous and 
brilliant, tool of a spiritual master-mechanic who 
will use him according to his own purposes, in 
the interest of the society. 

The Jesuits have signally failed to convince the 
world that the type of character produced by their 
system is worthy of admiration. The '^sacrifice 
of the intellect" — a familiar watchword of the 
Jesuit — is far too high a price to pay for whatever 
benefits the discipline may confer. It is contrary 
to human nature, and hence to the divine intention, 
to keep a human soul in a state of subordination to 
another human will. As Von Hoensbroech says of 
the society : " Who gave it a right to break down 
that most precious possession of the individual 
being, which God gave, and which man has no 
authority to take away.? " 

It is true that no human organization has so 
magnificently brought to perfection a unity of 
purpose and oneness of will. It is also true that a 



r>^^ SOCIETY OF JESUS 271 

spirit of defiance toward human authority is often 
accompanied by a disobedience of divine law. But 
the remedy for the abuses of human freedom is 
neither in the annihilation of the will itself, nor in its 
mere subjection to some other will irrespective of 
its moral character. Carlyle may have been too 
vehement in some of his censures of Jesuitism, but 
he certainly exposed the fallaciousness of Loyola's 
views concerning the value of mere obedience, at the 
same time justly rebuking the too ardent admirers 
of the perverted principle : " I hear much also of 
* obedience,* how that and kindred virtues are 
prescribed and exemplified by Jesuitism ; the truth 
of which, and the merit of which, far be it from me 
to deny. . . . Obedience is good and indispen- 
sable : but if it be obedience to what is wrong and 
false, good heavens, there is no name for such a 
depth of human cowardice and calamity, spurned 
everlastingly by the gods. Loyalty ? Will you be 
loyal to Beelzebub ? Will you ' make a covenant 
with Death and Hell ' ? I will not be loyal to 
Beelzebub; I will become a nomadic Choctaw 
rather, . . . anything and everything is venial 
to that/' 



272 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



The Casuistry of the Jesuits 

It is often asserted, even by authoritative writers, 
that a Jesuit is bound by his vows to commit either 
venial or mortal sin at the command of his supe- 
rior ; and that the maxim, " The end justifies the 
means," has not only been the principle upon which 
the society has prosecuted its work but is also 
explicitly taught in the rules of the order. There 
is nothing in the constitution of the society to justify 
these two serious charges, which are not to be 
regarded as malicious calumnies, however, because 
the slovenly Latin in one of the rules on obedience 
has misled such competent scholars as John Adding- 
ton Symonds and the historian Ranke. Further- 
more, judging from the doctrines of the society as 
set forth by many of their theologians and the 
political conduct of its representatives, the conclu- 
sion seems inevitable that while the society may not 
teach in its rules that its members are bound to 
obedience even to the point of sin, yet practically 
many of its leaders have so held and its emissaries 
have rendered that kind of obedience. 



The SOCIETY OF JESUS 273 

Bishop Keane admits that one of the causes for 
the decline and overthrow of the society was its 
marked tendency toward lax moral teaching. There 
can be but little doubt that the Jesuits have ever 
been indulgent toward many forms of sin and even 
crime, when committed under certain circumstances 
and for the good of the order or " the greater glory 
of God." 

To enable the reader to form some sort of an 
independent judgment on this question, it is nec- 
essary to say a few words on the subject of casuistry 
and the doctrine of probabilism. 

Casuistry is the application of general moral rules 
to given cases, especially to doubtful ones. The 
medieval churchmen were much given to inventing 
fanciful moral distinctions and to prescribing rules 
to govern supposable problems of conscience. 
They were not willing to trust the individual con- 
science or to encourage personal responsibility.^ 
The individual was taught to lean his whole weight 
on his spiritual adviser, in other words, to make the 
conscience of the church his own. As a result there 
grew up a confused mass of precepts to guide the 

perplexed conscience. The Jesuits carried this 
18 



274 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

system to its farthest extreme. As Charles C. Star- 
buck says : " They have heaped possibility upon 
possibility in their endeavors to make out how far 
there can be subjective innocence in objective error, 
until they have, in more than one fundamental 
point, hopelessly confused their own perceptions of 
both/' * 

The doctrine of probabilism is founded upon the 
distinctions between opinions that are sure, less 
sure, or more sure. There are several schools of 
probabilists, but the doctrine itself practically 
amounts to this : Since uncertainty attaches to 
many of our decisions in moral affairs, one must 
follow the more probable rule, but not always, cases i 
often arising when it is permissible to follow a rule 
contrary to the more probable one. Furthermore, 
as the Jesuits made war upon individual authority, 
which was the key-note of the Reformation, and 
contended for the authority of the church, the 
teaching naturally followed, that the opinion of " a 
grave doctor *' may be looked upon " as possessing 
a fair amount of probability, and may, therefore, be 
safely followed, even though one*s conscience insist 

♦Appendix, Note H. 



rhe SOCIETY OF JESUS 275 

upon the opposite course." It is easy to see that 
this opens a convenient door to those who are seek- 
ing justification for conduct which their consciences 
condemn. No doubt one can find plausible excuses 
for the basest crimes, if he stills the voice of con- 
science and trusts himself to confusing sophistry. 
The glory of God, the gravity of circumstances, 
necessity, the good of the church or of the order, 
and numerous other practical reasons can be urged 
to remove scruples and make a bad act seem to be a 
good one. But crime, even " for the glory of God," 
is crime still. 

This disagreeable subject will not be pursued 
further. To say less than has been said would be 
to ignore one of the most prominent causes of the 
Jesuits' ruin. To say more than this, even though 
the facts might warrant it, would incur the liability 
of being classed among those malicious fomentors 
of religious strife, for whom the writer has mingled 
feelings of pity and contempt. The Society of 
Jesus is not the Roman Catholic Church, which has 
suffered much from the burden of Jesuitism — 
wounds that are scarcely atoned for by the merito- 
rious and self-sacrificing services on her behalf in 



276 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

other directions. The Protestant foes have never 
equaled the Catholic opponents of Jesuitism, either 
in their fierce hatred of the system or in their ability 
to expose its essential weakness. A writer in the 
"Quarterly Review," September, 1848, says: 
" Admiration and detestation of the Jesuits divide, 
as far as feeling is concerned, the Roman Catholic 
world, with a schism deeper and more implacable 
than any which arrays Protestant against Protestant." 

The Mission of the Jesuits 

The Society of Jesus has been described as " a 
naked sword, whose hilt is at Rome, and whose 
point is everywhere." It is an undisputed histori- 
cal fact that Loyola's consuming passion was to 
accomplish the ruin of Protestantism, which had 
twenty years the start of him and was threat- 
ening the very existence of the Roman hierarchy. 
It has already been shown that the destruction of 
heresy was the chief aim of the Dominicans. What 
the friars failed to attain, Loyola attempted. The 
principal object of the Jesuits was the maintenance 
of papal authority. Even to-day the Jesuit does 



rhe SOCIETY OF JESUS 277 

not hesitate to declare that his mission is to over- 
throw Protestantism. The Reformation was in- 
spired by a new conception of individual freedom. 
The authority of tradition and of the church was set 
at naught. Loyola planted his system upon the 
doctrine of absolute submission to authority. The 
partial success of the Jesuits, for they did beat back 
the Reformation, is no doubt attributable to their 
fidelity, virtue and learning. Their devotion to the 
cause they loved, their willingness to sacrifice life 
itself, their marvelous and instantaneous obedience 
to the slightest command of their leaders, made 
them a compact and powerful papal army. Their 
methods, in many particulars, were not beyond 
question, and, whatever their character, the order 
certainly incurred the fiercest hostility of every 
nation in Europe, and even of the church itself. 

Professor Anton Gindely, in his " History of 
the Thirty Years* War,'* shows that Maximilian, of 
Bavaria, and Ferdinand, of Austria, the leaders on 
the Catholic side, were educated by Jesuits. He 
also fixes the responsibility for that war partly upon 
them in the plainest terms : "In a word, they had 
the consciences of Roman Catholic sovereigns and 



278 MONKS ^«^ MONASTERIES 

their ministers in their hands as educators, and in 
their keeping as confessors. They led them in the 
direction of war, so that it was at the time, and has 
since been called the Jesuits' War." 

The strictures of Carlyle, Macaulay, Thackeray, 
and Lytton have been repeatedly denounced by the 
Jesuits, but even their shrewd, sophistical defences 
of their order afford ample justification for the 
attitude of their foes. For example, in a masterful 
oration, previously quoted from, in which the 
virtues of the Jesuits are extolled and defended, 
Father Sherman says : " We are expelled and driven 
from pillar to post because we teach men to love 
God." He describes Loyola as " the knightly, the 
loyal, the true, the father of heroes, and the maker 
of saints, the lover of the all-good and the all-beau- 
tiful, crowned with the honor of sainthood, the best- 
loved and the best-hated man in all the world, save 
only his Master and ours." " 'Twas he that con- 
ceived the daring plan of forging the weapon to 
beat back the Reformation." No one but a Jesuit 
could reconcile the aim of " preaching the love of 
God " with " beating back the Reformation," espec- 
ially in view of the methods employed. 



r>^^ SOCIETY OF JESUS 279 

Numerous gross calumnies have been circulated 
against the Society of Jesus. The dread of a return 
to that deplorable intellectual and moral slavery of 
the pre-Reformation days is so intense, that a calm, 
dispassionate consideration of Jesuit history is 
almost impossible. But after all just concessions 
have been made, two indisputable facts confront the 
student: first, the universal antagonism to the 
order, of the church that gave birth to it, as well 
as of the states that have suffered from its meddling 
in political affairs ; and second, the complete failure 
of the order's most cherished schemes. France, 
Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain and 
other nations, have been compelled in sheer self- 
defence to expel it from their territories. Such a 
significant fact needs some other explanation than 
that the Jesuit has incurred the enmity of the world 
merely for preaching the love of God. 

Clement XIV., when solemnly pronouncing the 
dissolution of the order, at the time his celebrated 
bull, entitled " Dominus ac Redemptor Noster^ 
which was signed July 21, 1773, was made public, 
justified his action in the following terms : " Recog- 
nizing that the members of this society have not a 



28o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and 
that for the welfare of Christendom it were better 
that the order should disappear," etc. When Rome 
thus delivers her ex cathedra opinion concerning 
her own order, an institution which she knows 
better than any one else, one cannot fairly be 
charged with prejudice and sectarianism in speaking 
evil of it. 

But while there is much to be detested in the 
methods of the order, history does not furnish 
another example of such self-abnegation and intense '■ 
zeal as the Jesuits have shown in the prosecution of 
their aims. They planted missions in Japan, China, 
Africa, Ceylon, Madagascar, North and South 
America. 

In Europe the Mendicant friars by their coarse- 
ness had disgusted the upper classes ; the affable 
and cultured Jesuit won their hearts. The Jesuits 
became chaplains in noble families, learned the 
secrets of every government in Europe, and became 
the best schoolmasters in the age. They were to 
be found in various disguises in every castle of note 
and in every palace. " There was no region of the 
globe," says Macaulay, " no walk of speculative or 



the SOCIETY OF JESUS 281 

active life in which Jesuits were not to be found." 
That they were devoted to their cause no one can 
deny. They were careless of life and, as one face- 
tiously adds, of truth also. They educated, heard 
confessions, plotted crimes and revolutions, and 
published whole libraries. Worn out by fatigue, 
the Jesuits still toiled on with marvelous zeal. 
Though hated and opposed, they wore serene and 
cheerful countenances. In a word, they had learned 
to control every faculty and every passion, and to 
merge every human aspiration and personal ambi- 
tion into the one supreme purpose of conquering an 
opposing faith and exalting the power of priestly 
authority. They hold up before the subjects of the 
King of Heaven a wonderful example of loving and 
untiring service, which should be emulated by every 
servant of Christ who too often yields an indiffer- 
ent obedience to Him whom he professes to love 
and to serve. 

Francis Parkman, in his brilliant narrative of 
" The Jesuits in North America," presents the fol- 
lowing interesting contrast between the Puritan and 
the Jesuit : " To the mind of the Puritan, heaven 
was God*s throne ; but no less was the earth His 



282 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

footstool ; and each in its degree and its kind had 
its demands on man. He held it a duty to labor 
and to multiply ; and, building on the Old Testa- 
ment quite as much as on the New> thought that a 
reward on earth as well as in heaven awaited those 
who were faithful to the law. Doubtless, such a 
belief is widely open to abuse, and it would be folly 
to pretend that it escaped abuse in New England ; 
but there was in it an element manly, healthful and 
invigorating. On the other hand, those who shaped 
the character, and in a great measure the destiny, 
of New France had always on their lips the nothing- 
ness and the vanity of life. For them, time was 
nothing but a preparation for eternity, and the 
highest virtue consisted in a renunciation of all the 
cares, toils and interests of earth. That such a 
doctrine has often been joined to an intense world- 
liness, all history proclaims ; but with this we have 
at present nothing to do. If all mankind acted on 
it in good faith, the world would sink into decrepi- 
tude. It is the monastic idea carried into the wide 
field of active life, and is like the error of those 
who, in their zeal to cultivate their higher nature, 
suffer the neglected body to dwindle and pine, till 



The SOCIETY OF JESUS 283 

body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and 
disease.'* 

Notwithstanding the success of the Jesuits in 
stopping the progress of the Reformation, it may 
be truthfully said that they have failed. The 
principles of the Reformation dominate the world 
and are slowly modifying the Roman church in 
America. " In truth," says Macaulay, "if society 
continued to hold together, if life and property 
enjoyed any security, it was because common sense 
and common humanity restrained men from doing 
what the order of Jesus assured them they might 
with a safe conscience do." Our hope for the future 
progress of society lies in the guiding power of this 
same common sense and common humanity. 

The restoration of the order by Pius VII., 
August 7th, 1 8 14, while it renewed the papal favor, 
did not allay the hostility of the civil powers. 
Various states have expelled them since that time, 
and wherever they labor, they are still the objects 
of open attack or ill-disguised suspicion. Although 
the order still shows " some quivering in fingers and 
toes," as Carlyle expresses it, the principles of the 
Reformation are too widely believed, and its bene- 



284 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

fits too deeply appreciated, to justify any hope or 
fear of the ultimate triumph of Jesuitism. 



Retrospect 

So the Christian monk has greatly changed since 
he first appeared in the deserts of Nitria, in Egypt. 
He has come from his den in the mountains to take 
his seat in parliaments, and find his home in palaces. 
He is no longer filthy in appearance, but elegant in' 
dress and courtly in manner. He has exchanged 
his rags for jewels and silks. He is no longer the) 
recluse of the lonely cliffs, chatting with the animals 
and gazing at the stars. He is a man of the world, 
with schemes of conquest filling his brain and a love I 
of dominion ruling his heart. He is no longer a 
ditch-digger and a ploughman, but the proud mas- 
ter of councils or the cultured professor of the 
university. He still swears to the three vows of 
celibacy, poverty and obedience, but they do not 
mean the same thing to him that they did to the 
more ignorant, less cultured, but more genuinely 
frank monk of the desert. Yes, he has all but 
completely lost sight of his ancient monastic ideal. 



The SOCIETY OF JESUS 285 

He professes the poverty of Christ, but he cannot 
follow even so simple a man as his Saint Francis. 

It is a long way from Jerome to Ignatius, but the 
end of the journey is nigh. Loyola is the last type 
of monastic life, or changing the figure, the last great 
leader in the conquered monastic army. The 
good within the system will survive, its truest 
exponents will still fire the courage and win the 
sympathy of the devout, but best of all, man will . 
recover from its poison. 



VII 

THE FALL OF THE MONASTERIES 

THE RISE of Protestantism accelerated 
the decline and final ruin of the monas- 
teries. The enthusiasm of the Mendi- 
cants and the culture of the Jesuits 
failed to convince the governments of Europe that 
monasticism was worthy to survive the destruction 
awaiting so many medieval institutions. The spread 
of reformatory opinions resulted in a determined 
and largely successful attack upon the monasteries, 
which were rightly believed to constitute the bul- 
wark of papal power. So imperative were the 
popular demands for a change, that popes and 
councils hastened to urge the members of religious 
orders to abolish existing abuses by enforcing prim- 
itive rules. But while Rome practically failed in 
her attempted reformations, the Protestant reformers 

in church and state were widely successful in either 

286 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 287 

curtailing the privileges and revenues of the monks 
or in annihilating the monasteries. 

Since the sixteenth century the leading govern- 
ments of Europe, even including those in Catholic 
countries, have given tangible expression to popular 
and political antagonism to monasticism, by the 
abolition of convents, or the withdrawal of immun- 
ities and favors, for a long time a source of monastic 
revenue and power. The results of this hostility 
have been so disastrous, that monasticism has 
never regained its former prestige and influence. 
Several of the older orders have risen from the 
ruins, and a few new communities have appeared, 
some of which are distinguished by their most 
laudable ministrations to the poor and the sick, or 
by their educational services. Yet notwithstanding 
the modifications of the system to suit the exigencies 
of modern times, it seems altogether improbable 
that the monks will ever again wield the power they 
possessed before the Reformation. 

In the present chapter attention will be confined 
to the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry 
VIII., in England. The suppression in that coun- 
try was occasioned partly by peculiar, local condi- 



288 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

tions, and was more radical and permanent than the 
reforms in other lands, yet it is entirely consistent 
with our general purpose to restrict this narrative to 
English history. Penetrating beneath the varying 
externalities attending the ruin of the monasteries in 
Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and 
other countries, it will be found that the underlying 
cause of the destruction of the monasteries was 
that the monastic ideal conflicted with the spirit of 
the modern era. A conspicuous and dramatic 
example of this struggle between medievalism, as 
embodied in the monastic institution, and modern 
political, social and religious ideals, is to be found in 
the dissolution of the English monasteries. The 
narrative of the suppression in England also conveys 
some idea of the struggle that was carried on through- 
out Europe, with varying intensity and results. 

There is no more striking illustration of the 
power of the personal equation in the interpretation 
of history than that afforded by the conflicting 
opinions respecting the overthrow of monasticism 
in England. Those who mourn the loss of the 
monasteries cannot find words strong enough with 
which to condemn Henry VIII., whom they regard 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 289 

as " unquestionably the most unconstitutional, the 
most vicious king that ever wore the English 
crown." Forgetting the inevitable cost of human 
freedom, and lightly passing over the iniquities of 
the monastic system, they fondly dwell upon the 
departed glory of the ancient abbeys. They recall 
with sadness the days when the monks chanted 
their songs of praise in the chapels, or reverently 
bent over their books of parchment, bound in pur- 
ple and gold, not that they might "winnow the 
treasures of knowledge, but that they might elicit 
love, compunction and devotion." The charming 
simplicity and loving service of the cloister life, in 
the days of its unbroken vows, appeal to such 
defenders of the monks with singular potency. 

Truly, the fair-minded should attempt to appre- 
ciate the sorrow, the indignation and the love of 
these friends of a ruined institution. Passionless 
logic will never enable one to do justice to the sent- 
iments of those who cannot restrain their tears as 
they stand uncovered before the majestic remains 
of a Melrose Abbey, or properly to estimate the 
motives and methods of those who laid the mighty 
monastic institution in the dust. 

19 



290 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



"The Character of Henry VIII 

Before considering the actual work of suppress- 
ion, it may be interesting to glance at the royal 
destroyer and his times. The character of Henry 
VIII. is utterly inexplicable to many persons, 
chiefly because they do not reflect that even the 
inconsistencies of a great man may be understood 
when seen in the light of his times. A masterly 
and comprehensive summary of the virtues and 
vices of the Tudor monarch, who has been described 
as " the king, the whole king, and nothing but the 
king," may be found in " A History of Crime in 
England," by Luke Owen Pike. The distin- 
guished author shows that in his brutality, his love 
of letters, his opposition to Luther, his vacillation 
in religious opinions. King Henry reflects with 
remarkable fidelity the age in which he lived, both 
in its contrasts and its inconsistencies. " It is only 
the previous history of England which can explain 
all the contradictions exhibited in his conduct, — 
which can explain how he could be rapacious yet 
sometimes generous, the Defender of the Faith yet 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 291 

er sentence of excommunication, a burner of 
jtics yet a heretic himself, the pope's advocate 
yet the pope's greatest enemy, a bloodthirsty tyrant 
yet the best friend to liberty of thought in religion, 
an enthusiast yet a turncoat, a libertine and yet all 
but a Puritan. He was sensual because his fore- 
fathers had been sensual from time immemorial, 
rough in speech and action because there had been 
but few men in Britain who had been otherwise 
since the Romans abandoned the island. He was 
superstitious and credulous because few were philo- 
sophical or gifted with intellectual courage. Yet he 
had, what was possessed by his contemporaries, a 
faint and intermittent thirst for knowledge, of which 
he himself hardly knew the meaning." Henry was 
shrewd, tenacious of purpose, capricious and versa- 
tile. In spite of his unrestrained indulgences and 
his monstrous claims of power, which, be it remem- 
bered, he was able to enforce, and notwithstanding 
any other vices or faults that may be truthfully 
charged against him, he was, on the whole, a popu- 
lar king. Few monarchs have ever had to bear 
such a strain as was placed upon his abilities and 
character. Rare have been the periods that have 



292 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

witnessed such confusion of principles, social, polit- 
ical and religious. Those were the days when 
liberty was at work, " but in a hundred fantastical 
and repulsive shapes, confused and convulsive, 
multiform, deformed." Blind violence and half- 
way reforms characterized the age because the prin- 
ciples that were to govern modern times were not 
yet formulated. 

Judged apart from his times Henry appears as ai 
arrogant, cruel and fickle ruler, whose virtues fail to' 
atone for his vices. But still, with all his faults, he 
compares favorably with preceding monarchs and 
even with his contemporaries. If he had possessed 
less intelligence, courage and ambition, he would 
not now be so conspicuous for his vices, but the his- 
tory of human liberty and free institutions, especi- 
ally in England, would have been vastly different. 
His praiseworthy traits were not sufficiently strong 
to enable him to control his inherited passions, but 
they were too regnant to permit him to submit 
without a struggle to the hierarchy which had domi- 
nated his country so many centuries. Such was 

"the majestic lord, 
That broke the bonds of Rome." 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 293 



Events Preceding the Suppression 

Many causes and incidents contributed to the 
progress of the reformation in England, and to the 
demolition of the monasteries. Only a few of them 
can be given here, and they must be stated with a 
brevity that conveys no adequate conception of their 
profound significance. 

Henry VIII. ascended the throne, in the year 
1509, when eighteen years of age. In 15 17, Luther 
took his stand against Rome. Four years later 
Henry wrote a treatise in defence of the Seven 
Sacraments and in opposition to the German 
reformer. For this princely service to the church 
the king received the title " Defender of the Faith" 
from Pope Leo X. 

About 1527 it became known that Henry was 
questioning the validity of his marriage with 
Catharine of Aragon, whom he had married when 
he was twelve years old. She was the widow of his 
brother Arthur. The king professed conscientious 
scruples about his marriage, but undoubtedly his 
desire for male offspring, and later, his passion 



294 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

for Anne Boleyn, prompted him to seek release from 
his queen. In 1529, Henry and Catharine stood 
before a papal tribunal, presided over by Cardinal 
Wolsey, the king's prime minister, and Cardinal 
Campeggio, from Rome, for the purpose of deter- 
mining the validity of the royal marriage. The 
trial was a farce. The enraged king laid the blame 
upon Wolsey, and retired him from office. The 
great cardinal was afterwards charged with treason, 
but died broken-hearted, on his way to the Tower, 
November 29, 1530. 

The breach between Henry and Rome, compli- 
cated by numerous international intrigues, widened 
rapidly. Henry began to assume an attitude of 
bold defiance toward the pope, which aroused the 
animosity of the Catholic princes of Europe. 

Notwithstanding the desire of a large body of the 
English people to remain faithful to Rome, 
the dangers which menaced their country from 
abroad and the ecclesiastical abuses at home, which 
had been a fruitful cause for complaint for many 
years, tended to lessen the ancient horror of heresy 
and schism, and inclined them to support their king. 
Another factor that assisted in preparing the English 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 295 

people for the destruction of the monasteries was 
Lollardism. As an organized sect, the Lollards had 
ceased to exist, but the spirit and the doctrines of 
Wyclif did not die. A real and a vital connection 
existed between the Lollards of the fourteenth, and 
the reformers of the sixteenth, centuries. In 
Henry's time, many Englishmen held practically 
the same views of Rome and of the monks that 
had been taught by Wyclif.* 

A considerable number of Henry's subjects, 
however, while ostensibly loyal to him, were 
inwardly full of hot rebellion. The king was sur- 
rounded with perils. The princes of the Continent 
were eagerly awaiting the bull for his excommunica- 
tion. Henry's throne and his kingdom might at 
any moment be given over by the pope to invasion 
by the continental sovereigns. 

Reginald Pole, afterwards cardinal, a cousin of the 
king, and a strong Catholic, stood ready to betray 
the interests of his country to Rome. Writing to 
the king, he said : *' Man is against you ; God is 
against you ; the universe is against you ; what can 
you look for but destruction ? " " Dream not, 

■^Appendix, Note I. 



296 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Caesar," he encouragingly declared to Emperor 
Charles V., " that all generous hearts are quenched 
in England ; that faith and piety are dead. In you 
is their trust, in your noble nature, and in your 
zeal for God — they hold their land till you shall 
come/* Thus, on the testimony of a Roman 
Catholic, there were traitors in England waiting only 
for the call of Charles V., " To arms ! " Pole was 
in full sympathy with all the factions opposed to the 
king, and stood ready to aid them in their resistance. 
He publicly denounced the king in several conti- 
nental countries. 

The monks were especially enraged against 
Henry. They did all they could to inflame the 
people by preaching against him and the reformers. 
Friar Peyto, preaching before the king, had the 
assurance to say to him : " Many lying prophets 
have deceived you, but I, as a true Micah, warn 
you that the dogs will lick your blood as they did 
Ahab's." While the courage of this friar is unques- 
tioned, his defiant attitude illustrates the position 
occupied by the monks toward those who favored 
separation from Rome. The whole country was 
at white heat. The friends of Rome looked upon 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 297 

Henry as an incarnate fiend, a servant of the devil 
and an enemy of all religion. Many of them 
opposed him with the purest and best motives, 
believing that the king was really undermining the 
church of God and throwing society into chaos. 

In 1 53 1, the English clergy were coerced into 
declaring that Henry was " the protector and the 
supreme head of the church and of the clergy of 
England/* which absurd claim was slightly modified 
by the words, " in so far as is permitted by the law of 
Christ." Chapuys, in one of his despatches inform- 
ing Charles V. of this action of convocation, said 
that it practically declared Henry the Pope of 
England. '* It is true,'* he wrote, " that the clergy 
have added to the declaration that they did so only 
so far as permitted by the law of God. But that is 
all the same, as far as the king is concerned, as if 
they had made no reservation, for no one will now 
be so bold as to contest with his lord the import- 
ance of the reservation.'' Later on, Chapuys says 
that the king told the pope's nuncio that " if the 
pope would not show him more consideration, he 
would show the world that the pope had no 
greater authority than Moses, and that every claim 



298 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

not grounded on Scripture was mere usurpation; i 
that the great concourse of people present had come 
solely and exclusively to request him to bastinado j 
the clergy, who were hated by both nobles and the ^ 
people." ( " Spanish Despatches," number 460.) 

Parliament, in 1534, conferred on Henry the title 
" Supreme Head of the Church of England," and 
empowered him " to visit, and repress, redress, 
reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all errors, 
heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, 
which fell under any spiritual authority or jurisdic- 
tion." The " Act of Succession " was also passed 
by Parliament, cutting off Princess Mary and 
requiring all subjects to take an oath of allegiance 
to Elizabeth. 

It was now an act of treason to deny the king's 
supremacy. All persons suspected of disloyalty 
were required to sign an oath of allegiance to 
Henry, and to Elizabeth as his successor, and to 
acknowledge the supremacy of the king in church 
and state. This resulted in the death of some 
prominent men in the realm, among them Sir 
Thomas More. In the preamble of the oath pre- 
scribed by law, the legality of the king's marriage 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 299 

with Anne was asserted, thus implying that his 
former marriage with Catharine was unlawful. 
More was willing to declare his allegiance to the 
infant Elizabeth, as the king's successor, but his 
conscience would not permit him to affirm that 
Catharine's marriage was unlawful. 

The life of the brilliant and lovable More is 
another illustration of the mental confusions and 
inconsistencies of that age. As an apostle of cult- 
ure he favored the new learning, and yet he viewed 
the gathering momentum of reformatory principles 
with alarm, and cast in his lot with the ultra-con- 
servatives. Four years of his young manhood were 
spent in a monastery. He devoted his splendid 
talents to a criticism of English society, and recom- 
mended freedom of conscience, yet he became an 
ardent foe of reform and even a persecutor of here- 
tics, of whom he said : " I do so detest that class 
of men that, unless they repent, I am the worst 
enemy they have.'* When a man, whom even Prot- 
estant historians hasten to pronounce " the glory of 
his age," so magnificent were his talents and so 
blameless his character, was tainted with superstition, 
and sanctioned the persecution of liberal thinkers, 



300 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

is it remarkable that inferior intellects should have 
been swayed by the brutality and tyranny of the 
times ? 

The unparalleled claims of Henry and his atti- 
tude toward the pope made the breach between 
England and Rome complete, but many years of 
painful internal strife and bloodshed were to elapse 
before the whole nation submitted to the new order 
of things, and before that subjective freedom from 
fear and superstition without which formal freedom 
has little value, was secured. 

The breach with Rome was essential to the attain- 
ment of that religious and political freedom that 
England now enjoys. But the first step toward 
making that separation an accomplished fact, acqui- 
esced in by the people as a whole, was to break the 
power of the monastic orders. It may possibly be 
true that the same ends would have been eventually 
attained by trusting to the slower processes of social 
evolution, but the history of the Latin nations of 
Europe would seem to prove the contrary. As the 
facts stand it would appear that peace and progress 
were impossible with thousands of monks sowing 
seeds of discord, and employing every measure, fair 



I 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 301 

or foul, to win the country back to Rome. Gaird- 
ner and others argue that Henry was far too power- 
ful a king to have been successfully resisted by the 
pope, unless the pope was backed by a union of the 
Christian princes, which was then impracticable. 
That fact may make the execution of More, Fisher 
and the Charterhouse monks inexcusable, but it by 
no means proves that Henry would have been strong 
enough to maintain his position if the monasteries 
had been permitted to exist as centers of organized 
opposition to his will. Many of the monks, when 
pressed by the king's agents, took the oath of alle- 
giance. Threats, bribes and violence were used to 
overcome the opposition of the unwilling. 

'The Monks and the Oath of Supremacy 

It is quite evident that the king's purpose to 
destroy the whole monastic institution was partly 
the result of the determined resistance which the 
monks offered to his authority. The contest 
between the king and the monks was exceedingly 
fierce and bloody. Many good men lost their lives 
and many innocent persons suffered grievously. 



302 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Perhaps the most pathetic incident in the sanguinary- 
struggle between the king and the monks was the 
tragic fall of the Charterhouse of London. The 
facts are given at length by Froude, in his " History 
of England," who bases his account on the narrative 
of Maurice Channey, one of the monks who escaped 
death by yielding to the king. The unhappy monk 
confesses that he was a Judas amqng the apostles, 
and in a touching account of the ruin that came 
upon his monastic retreat he praises the boldness 
and fidelity of his companions, who preferred death 
to what seemed to them dishonor. 

The pages of Channey are filled with the most 
improbable stories of miracles, but his charming 
picture of the cloister life of the Carthusians is 
doubtless true to reality. The Carthusian fathers 
were the best fruit of monasticism in England. To 
a higher degree than any of the other monastic 
orders they maintained a good discipline and pre- 
served the spirit of their founders. " A thousand 
years of the world's history had rolled by," says 
Froude, " and these lonely islands of prayer had 
remained still anchored in the stream ; the strands 
of the ropes which held them, wearing now to a 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 303 

thread, and very near their last parting, but still 
unbroken." In view of the undisputed purity and 
fearlessness of these noble monks, a recital of their 
woes will place the case for the monastic institution 
in the most favorable light. 

Channey says the year 1533 was ushered in with 
signs, — the end of the world was nigh. Yes, the 
monk^s world was drawing to a close ; the moon, for 
him, was turning into blood, and the stars falling 
from heaven. 

More and Fisher were in the Tower. The former's 
splendid talents and noble character still swayed the 
people. It was no time for trifling ; the Carthusian 
fathers^ must take the oath of allegiance or perish. 
So one morning the royal commissioners appeared 
before the monastery door of the Charterhouse to 
demand submission. Prior Houghton answered 
them : " I know nothing of the matter mentioned ; 
I am unacquainted with the world without ; my 
office is to minister to God, and to save poor souls 
from Satan.'' He was committed to the Tower for 
one month. Then Dr. Bonner persuaded the 
prior to sign with " certain reservations." He was 
released and went back to his cloister-cell to weep. 



304 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Calling his monks together he said he was sorry ; it 
looked like deceit, but he desired to save his brethren 
and their order. The commissioners returned ; the 
monks were under suspicion ; the reservations were 
disliked, and they must sign without conditions. In 
great consternation the prior assembled the monks. 
All present cried out : " Let us die together in our 
integrity, and heaven and earth shall witness for us 
how unjustly we are cut off.** Prior Houghton 
conceived a generous idea. "If it depends on me 
alone ; if my oath will suffice for the house, I will 
throw myself on the mercy of God ; I will make 
myself anathema, and to preserve you from these 
dangers, I will consent to the king's will.'' Thus 
did the noble old man consent to go into heaven 
with a lie on his conscience, hoping to escape by the 
mercy of God, because he sought to save the lives 
of his brethren. But all this was of no avail ; 
Cromwell had determined that this monastery must 
fall, and fall it did. The monks prepared for their 
end calmly and nobly ; beginning with the oldest 
brother, they knelt before each other and begged for- 
giveness for all unkindness and offence. " Not less 
deserving," says Froude, " the everlasting remem- 



1 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 305 

brance of mankind, than those three hundred, who, 
in the summer morning, sate combing their golden 
hair in the passes of Thermopylae." But rebellion 
was blazing in Ireland, and the enemies of the king 
were praying and plotting for his ruin. These 
monks, with More and Fisher, were an inspiration 
to the enemies of liberty and the kingdom. Catho- 
lic Europe crouched like a tiger ready to spring on 
her prostrate foe. It is sad, but these recluses, 
praying for the pope, instilling a love for the papacy 
in the confessional, these honest and conscientious 
but dangerous men must be shorn of their power 
to encourage rebels. There was a farce of a trial. 
Houghton was brought to the scaffold and died 
protesting his innocence. His arm was cut off and 
hung over the archway of the Charterhouse, as 
other arms and heads were hideously hanging over 
many a monastic gate in Merry England. Nine 
of the monks died of prison fever, and others 
were banished. The king's court went into mourn- 
ing, and Henry knotted his beard and henceforth 
would be no more shaven — eloquent evidence to 
the world that whatever motive dominated the 

king's heart, these bloody deeds were unpleasantly 

20 



3o6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

disturbing. Certainly such a spectacle as that of 
a monk's arm nailed to a monastery was never 
seen by Englishmen before. 

The Charterhouse fell, let it be carefully noted, 
because the monks could not and would not 
acknowledge the king's supremacy, and not be- 
cause the monks were immoral. Some spies in 
Cromwell's service offered to bring in evidence 
against six of these monks of "laziness and im 
morality." Cromwell indignantly refused the pro 
posal, saying, "He would not hear the accusa- 
tion ; that it was false, wilfully so." 

The news of these proceedings, and of the 
beheading of More and Fisher, awakened the 
most violent rage throughout Catholic Europe. 
Henry was denounced as the Nero of his times. 
Paul ni. immediately excommunicated the king, 
dissolved all leagues between Henry and the 
Catholic princes, and gave his kingdom to any 
invader. All Catholic subjects were ordered to 
take up arms against him. Although these cen- 
sures were passed, the pope decided to defer their 
publication, hoping for a peaceful settlement. But 
Henry knew, and the Catholic princes of Europe 



i 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 307 

knew, that the blow might fall at any time. He 
had to make up his mind to go further or to 
yield unconditionally to the pope. The world 
soon discovered the temper of the enraged and 
stubborn monarch. He might vacillate on spec- 
ulative questions, but there were no tokens of 
feeble hesitancy in his dealings with Rome. The 
hour of doom for the monasteries had struck. 

Having thus glanced at the character of Henry 
Vin., the prime mover in the attack upon the 
monasteries, and having surveyed some of the 
events leading up to their fall, we are now prepared 
to consider the actual work of suppression, which 
will be described under the following heads : First, 
The royal commissioners and their methods of 
investigation ; Second, The commissioners' report 
on the condition of affairs ; Third, The action of 
Parliament ; Fourth, The effect of the suppression 
upon the people ; and Fifth, The use Henry 
made of the monastic possessions. These matters 
having been set forth, it will then be in order to 
inquire into the justification, real or alleged, of 
the suppression. 



3o8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

^he Royal Commissioners and Their Methods of 
Investigation 

The fall of Sir Thomas More left Thomas 
Cromwell the chief power under the king, and 
for seven years he devoted his great administra- 
tive abilities to making his royal patron absolute 
ruler in church and state. 

Cromwell, Earl of Essex, was of lowly origin, 
but his energy and shrewdness, together with the 
experience acquired by extensive travels, com- 
manded the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, who 
took him into his service. He was successively ^ 
merchant, scrivener, money-lender, lawyer, mem- i 
bcr of parliament, master of jewels, chancellor, 
master of rolls, secretary of state, vicar-general 
in ecclesiastical affairs, lord privy seal, dean of 
Wells and high chamberlain. J 

Close intimacy with Wolsey enabled Cromwell 
to grasp the full significance of Henry's ambition, 
and his desire to please his royal master, coupled 
with his own love of power, prompted him to 
throw himself with characteristic energy into the 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 309 

work of centralizing all authority in the hands of 
the king and of his prime minister. In secular 
affairs, this had already been accomplished. The 
task before him was to subdue the church to the 
throne, to execute which he became the protector 
of Protestantism and the foe of Rome. Green 
says : "He had an absolute faith in the end he 
was pursuing, and he simply hews his way to it, 
as a woodman hews his way through the forest, 
axe in hand." Froude says : " To him ever 
belonged the rare privilege of genius to see what 
other men could not see, and therefore he was 
condemned to rule a generation which hated him, 
to do the will of God and to perish in his 
success. He pursued an object, the excellence 
of which, as his mind saw it, transcended all 
other considerations, the freedom of England and 
the destruction of idolatry, and those who, from 
any motive, noble or base, pious or impious, 
crossed his path, he crushed and passed on over 
their bodies.** 

There seems to be a general agreement that 
Cromwell was not a Protestant. His struggle 
against the temporal power of the pope fostered 



3IO MONKS and MONASTERIES 

the reformatory movement, but that did not 
make Cromwell a Protestant any more than it did 
his master, Henry VIII. Foxe describes Crom- 
well " as a valiant soldier and captain of Christ/* 
but Maitland retorts " that Foxe forgot, if he 
ever knew, who was the father of lies/* 

Without doubt Cromwell ruled with an iron 
hand. He was guilty of accepting bribes, and, 
as some maintain, " was the great patron of 
ribaldry, and the protector of the low jester and 
the filthy.** But, sadly enough, that is no serious 
charge against one in his times. It is said that 
Henry used to say, when a knave was dealt to 
him in a game of cards, " Ah, I have a Crom- 
well ! ** Francis Aidan Gasquet, a Benedictine 
monk, in his valuable work on "Henry VIII. 
and the English Monasteries,** says of Cromwell : 
" No single minister in England ever exercised 
such extensive authority, none ever rose so rap- 
idly, and no one has ever left behind him a 
name covered with greater infamy and disgrace.** 

In 1535, Henry, as supreme head of the 
church, appointed Cromwell as his "Vicegerent, 
Vicar-General and Principal Commissary in causes 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 311 

ecclesiastical." His immediate duty was to enforce 
recognition of the king's supremacy. The monks 
and the clergy were now to be coerced into sub- 
mission. A royal commission, consisting of Legh, 
Layton, Ap Rice, London and various subordi- 
nates, was appointed to visit the monasteries and 
to report on their condition. 

Henry Griffin says in his chronicle : '^ I was 
well acquainted with all the commissioners ; indeed 
I knew them well ; they were very smart men, 
who understood the value of money, for they 
had tasted of adversity. I think the priests were 
the worst of the whole party, although they had 
a good reputation at the time, but they were 
wicked, deceitful men. I am sorry to speak thus 
of my own order, but I speak God's truth." " It 
is a dreadful undertaking," said Lord Clinton. 
" Ah ! but I have great faith in the tact and 
judgment of the men I am about to select," 
retorted Cromwell. 

Dr. John London was a base tool of Cromwell, 
and a miserable exponent of the reform movement. 
He joined Gardiner in burning heretics, was con- 
victed of adultery at Oxford, was pilloried for 



312 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

perjury and died in jail. The other royal agents 
were also questionable characters. Dean Layton 
wrote the most disgusting letters to Cromwell. 
Once he informed his patron that he prayed reg- 
ularly for him, prefacing this information with the 
remark, " I will now tell you something to make 
you laugh." 

Father Gasquet sums up his view of the com- 
missioners in the words of Edmund Burke : " It 
is not with much credulity that I listen to any 
when they speak ill of those whom they are 
going to plunder. I rather suspect that vices are 
feigned, or exaggerated, when profit is looked for 
in the punishment — an enemy is a bad witness ; 
a robber worse." Burke indignantly declares : 
" The inquiry into the moral character of the 
religious houses was a mere pretext, a complete 
delusion, an insidious and predetermined foray of 
wholesale and heartless plunder." 

Such are the protests from the defenders of the 
monasteries even before a hearing is granted. 
" What," say they, " believe such perjurers, adul- 
terers and gamblers ; men forsworn to bring in a 
bad report ; men who were selected because they 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 313 

were worthless characters who could be relied on 
to return false charges against an institution loved 
by the people ? " 

The commissioners began their work at Oxford, 
in September, 1535. The work was vigorously- 
pushed. On reaching the door of a monastery, 
they demanded admittance ; if it was not granted, 
they entered by breaking down the gate with an 
axe. They then summoned the monks before 
them, and plied them with questions. An inven- 
tory was taken of everything; nothing escaped 
their searching eyes. When the king decided to 
suppress the lesser monasteries, and ordered a 
new visitation of the larger ones, they seized and 
sold all they could lay their hands on ; " stained 
glass, ironwork, bells, altar-cloths, candles, books, 
beads, images, capes, brewing-tubs, brass bolts, 
spits for cooking, kitchen utensils, plates, basins, 
all were turned into money.'* Many valuable 
books were destroyed ; jewels and gold and silver 
clasps were torn from old volumes, and the paper 
sold as waste ; parchment manuscripts were used to 
scour tubs and grease boots. Out of the wreck 
about a hundred and thirty thousand manuscripts 



314 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

have been saved. It must be admitted that the 
commissioners were not delicate in their labors ; that 
they insulted many nuns, robbed the monks, vio- 
lated the laws of decency and humanity, and 
needlessly excited the rage of the people and 
outraged the religious sentiments of the Catholics. 
They even used sacred altar-cloths for blankets on 
their horses, and rode across the country deco- 
rated in priestly and monkish garments. There 
seems to be some ground for the statement that 
Henry was ignorant, or at least not fully informed, 
of their unwarranted violence and gross sacrilege. 
The abbey of Glastonbury was one of the 
oldest and finest cloisters in England. It was a 
majestic pile of buildings in the midst of gardens 
and groves covering sixty acres; its aisles were 
vocal with the chanting of monks, who marched 
in gorgeous processions among the tall, gray 
pillars. The exterior of the buildings was pro- 
fusely decorated with sculpture ; monarchs, temple 
knights, mitered abbots, martyrs and apostles stood 
for centuries in their niches of stone while princes 
came and passed away, while kingdoms rose and 
fell. The nobles and bishops of the realm were 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 315 

laid to rest beneath the altars around which many- 
generations of monks had assembled to praise 
and to pray. The royal commissioners one day 
appeared before the walls. The abbot, Richard 
Whiting, who was then eighty-four years of age, 
was at Sharphorn, another residence of the com- 
munity. He was brought back and questioned. 
At night when he was in bed, they searched his 
study for letters and books, and they claimed to 
have found a manuscript of Whiting's arguments 
against the divorce of the king and Queen Cath- 
arine ; it had never been published ; they did not 
know whether the venerable abbot had such 
intent or not. Stephen declares the spies them- 
selves brought the book into the library. How- 
ever, the abbot was chained to a cart and taken 
to London. The abbey had immense wealth ; 
every Wednesday and Friday it fed and lodged 
three hundred boys ; it was esteemed very highly 
in the neighborhood and received large donations 
from the knights in the vicinity. The abbot was 
accused of treason for concealing the sacred 
vessels ; he was old, deaf, and sick, but was 
allowed no counsel. He asked permission to 



3i6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

take leave of his monks, and many little orphans ; 
Russell and Layton only laughed. The people 
heard of his captivity and determined " to deliver 
or avenge " their favorite, but Russell hanged 
half a dozen of them and declared that " law, 
order and loyalty were vindicated." Whiting's 
body was quartered, and the pieces sent to Wells, 
Bath, Chester and Bridgewater, while his head, 
adorned with his gray hairs clotted by blood, 
was hung over the abbey gate. 

^he Report of the Commissioners 

The original report of the commissioners does 
not exist. Burnet declares that he saw an extract 
from it, concerning one hundred and forty-four 
houses, which contained the most revolting reve- 
lations. Many of the commissioners' letters and 
various documents touching the suppression have 
been collected and published by the Camden 
Society. Waiving, for the present, the inquiry 
into the truth of the report, it was in substance 
as follows : 

The commissioners reported about one-third of 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 317 

the houses to be fairly well conducted, some of 
them models of excellent management and pure 
living; but the other two-thirds were charged 
with looseness beyond description. The number 
of inmates in some cloisters was kept below the 
required number, that there might be more money 
to divide among the monks. The number of 
servants sometimes exceeded that of the monks. 
Abbots bought and sold land in a fraudulent 
manner ; gifts for hospitality were misapplied ; 
licentiousness, gaming and drinking prevailed 
extensively. Crime and absolution for gold went 
hand in hand. One friar was said to have been 
the proud father of an illegitimate family of chil- 
dren, but he had in his possession a forged 
license from the pope, who permitted his wander- 
ing, " considering his frailty." Froude, in com- 
menting upon the report, says : " If I were to 
tell the truth, I should have first to warn all 
modest eyes to close the book and read no 
farther." 

All sorts of pious frauds were revealed. At 
Hales the monks claimed to have the blood of 
Christ brought from Jerusalem, and not visible to 



3i8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



anyone in mortal sin until he had performed 
good works, or, in other words, paid enough for 
his absolution. Two monks took the blood of 
a duck, which they renewed every week; this 
they put into a phial, one side of which consisted 
of a thin, transparent crystal ; the other thick and 
opaque ; the dark side was shown until the 
sinner's gold was exhausted, when, presto ! change, 
the blood appeared by turning the other side of 
the phial. Innumerable toe-parings, bones, pieces of 
skin, three heads of St. Ursula, and other anatom- 
ical relics of departed saints, were said to cure every 
disease known to man. They had relics that could 
drive away plagues, give rain, hinder weeds, and in 
fact, render the natural world the plaything of decay- 
ing bones and shreds of dried skin. The monks 
of Reading had an angel with one wing, who had 
preserved the spear with which our Lord was 
pierced. Abbots were found to have concubines in 
or near the monasteries ; midnight revels and 
drunken feasts were pleasant pastimes for monks 
weary with prayers and fasting. While it would be 
unjust to argue that the existence of " pious frauds " 
affords a justification for the suppression of the 






FALL of the MONASTERIES 319 

monasteries, it must be remembered that they con- 
stituted one element in that condition of ecclesias- 
tical life that was becoming repugnant to the English 
people. For several generations there had been a 
marked growth in the hostility toward various forms 
of superstition. True, neither Henry nor Crom- 
well can be accredited with the lofty intention of 
exterminating superstition, but the attitude of many 
people toward " pious frauds " helped to reconcile 
them to the destruction of the monasteries. 

'The Action of Parliament 

The report of the commissioners was laid 
before Parliament in 1536. As it declared that 
the smaller monasteries were more corrupt than 
the larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppres- 
sion of all those houses whose revenues were less 
than two hundred pounds per annum. By this 
act, three hundred and seventy-six houses were 
suppressed, whose aggregate revenue was thirty- 
two thousand pounds yearly. Movable property 
valued at about one hundred thousand pounds 
was also handed over to the " Court of Augmen- 



3!2o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

tations of the " ng's Revenue," which was estab- 
lished ^' ^-. * of the estates, revenues and 
ot'jif tn c if the monasteries. It is 
clainu .iiousand monks and nuns were 
t;srr i j :i ^nto the world, to find bed and board 
y:oX. they could. In 1538, two years later, 
tne greater monasteries met a similar fate, which 
was no doubt hastened by the rebellions that 
followed the abolition of the smaller houses. 
Many of the abbots and monks were suspected 
of aiding in the rebellion against the king's 
authority by inciting the people to take up arms 
against him. Apprehending the coming doom, 
many abbots resigned; others were overcome by 
threats and yielded without a struggle. In many 
instances such monks received pensions varying 
from fifty-three shillings and four pence to four 
pounds a year. The investigations were con- 
stantly carried on, and all the foul stories that 
could be gathered were given to the people, to 
secure their approval of the king's action. With 
remorseless zeal the king and his commissioners, 
supported by various acts of parliament, perse- 
vered in their work of destruction, until even the 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 321 

monastic hospitals, chantries, free chapels and col- 
legiate churches, fell into the king's hands. By 
the year 1545, the ruin was complete. The 
monastic institution of England was no more. 
The total number of monasteries suppressed is 
variously estimated, but the following figures are 
approximately correct : monasteries, 616; colleges, 
90; free chapels, 2,374; and hospitals, no. The 
annual income was about one hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than 
was then believed to be in the control of the 
monks. Nearly fifty thousand persons were 
driven from the houses, to foment the discontent 
and to arouse the pity of the people. Such, in 
brief, was the extent of the suppression, but a 
little reflection will show that these statements of 
cold facts convey no conception of the confusion 
and sorrow that must have accompanied this 
terrific and wholesale assault upon an institution 
that had been accumulating its possessions for 
eight hundred years. At this distance from those 
tragic events, it is impossible to realize the dismay 
of those who stood aghast at this ruthless destruc- 
tion of such venerable establishments. 

21 



322 MONKS and MONASTERIES 



^he Effect of the Suppression Upon the People 

For months the country had seen what was 
coming; letters from abbots and priors poured in 
upon the king and parliament, begging them to 
spare the ancient strongholds of religion. The 
churchmen argued : " If he plunders the monas- 
teries, will not his next step be to plunder the 
churches ? *' They recalled what Sir Thomas 
More had said of their sovereign : "It is true, 
his majesty is very gracious with me, but if only 
my head would give him another castle in France, 
it would not be long before it disappeared." 
Sympathy for the monks, an inborn conservatism, 
a natural love for ancient institutions, a religious 
dread of trampling upon that which was held 
sacred by the church, a secret antipathy to reform, 
all these and other forces were against the sup- 
pression. But the report of the visitors was 
appalling, and the fear of the king's displeasure 
was widespread; so the bill was passed amid 
mingled feelings of joy, sympathy, hatred, fear, 
anxiety and uncertainty. The bishops were sullen ; 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 323 

Latimer was disappointed, for he wanted the 
church to have the proceeds. 

Outside of Parliament there was much discon- 
tent among the nobles and gentry of Roman 
tendencies. Even the indifferent felt bitter against 
the king, because it seemed unjust that the 
monks, who had been sheltered, honored and 
enriched by the people, should be so rudely and 
so suddenly turned out of their possessions. A 
dangerously large portion of the people felt them- 
selves insulted and outraged. At first, however, 
there were few who dared to voice their protests. 
" As the royal policy disclosed itself,** says Green, 
"as the monarchy trampled under foot the tradi- 
tion and reverence of ages gone by, as its figure 
rose, bare and terrible, out of the wreck of old 
institutions, England simply held her breath. It 
is only through the stray depositions of royal 
spies that we catch a glimpse of the wrath and 
hate which lay seething under the silence of the 
people." That silence was a silence of terror. 
To use the figure by which Erasmus describes 
the time, men felt "as if a scorpion lay sleeping 
under every stone." They stopped writing, gos- 



324 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

siping, going to confession, and sending presents, 
for the most thoughtless word or deed might be 
tortured into treason against the king by the 
command of Cromwell. 

The rebellion which followed the first attack 
upon the monasteries was not caused wholly by 
religious sentiments. The nobles regarded Crom- 
well as a base-born usurper and yearned for his 
fall, while the clergy felt outraged by his mon- 
strous claims of authority in ecclesiastical affairs. 
In a sense the conflict that ensued was but a 
continuation of the long-standing struggle between 
the king, the barons, and the clergy for the 
supreme power. From the reign of Edward I., 
the people had commenced to assert their rights 
and the struggle had become a four-sided one. 

These four factions were constantly shifting their 
allegiance, according to the varying conditions, and 
guided by their changing interests. At this time, 
the clergy, the nobles and the people in northern 
England, particularly, combined against the king, 
although the alliance was not formidable enough 
to overcome the forces supporting the king. 

The secular clergy felt that they were disgraced 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 325 

and coerced Into submission. They felt their 
revenues, their honors, their powers, their glory, 
slipping away from them ; they joined their mut- 
terings and discontent with that of the monks, 
and then the fires of the rebellion blazed forth 
in the north, where the monasteries were more 
popular than in any other part of England. 

The first outbreak occurred in Lincolnshire, in 
the autumn of 1536. It was easily and quickly 
suppressed. But another uprising in Yorkshire, 
in northern England, followed immediately, and 
for a time threatened serious consequences. Some 
of the best families in that part of the country 
joined the revolt, although it is noteworthy that 
these same families were afterwards Protestant 
and Puritan ; the rebel army numbered about 
forty thousand men, well equipped for service. 
Many prominent abbots and sixteen hundred 
monks were in the ranks. The masses were 
bound by oath ''to stand together for the love 
which they bore to Almighty God, His faith, 
the Holy Church, and the maintenance thereof; 
to the preservation of the king's person and his 
issue ; to the purifying of the nobility, and to expel 



2:^6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

all villein blood and evil counsellors from the king*s 
presence ; not from any private profit, nor to do 
his pleasure to any private person, nor to slay or 
murder through envy, but for the restitution of the 
Church, and the suppression of heretics and their 
opinions/* It is clear, from the language of the 
oath, that the rebels aimed their blows at Cromwell. 
The secular clergy hated him because he had shorn 
them of their power ; the monks hated him because 
he had turned them out of their cloisters, and 
clergy and people loathed him as a maintainer of 
heresy, a low-born foe of the Church. The insur- 
gents carried banners on which was printed a crucifix, 
a chalice and host, and the five wounds, hence they 
called themselves '* Pilgrims of Grace." The 
revolt was headed by Robert Aske, a barrister. 

Cromwell acted most cautiously ; he selected the 
strongest men to take the field. Richard Cromwell 
said of one of them. Sir John Russell, " for my 
lord admiral, he is so earnest in the matter that I 
dare say he could eat the Pilgrims without salt." 
The Duke of Norfolk was entrusted with the com- 
mand of the king's forces. 

Henry preferred negotiation to battle, in accept- 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 327 

ing which the rebels were doomed. To wait was to 
fail. Their demands reduced to paper were: i. 
The religious houses should be restored. 2. Eng- 
land should be reunited with Rome. 3. The first 
fruits and tenths should not be paid to the crown. 
4. Heretics, meaning Cranmer, Latimer and others, 
should cease to be bishops. 5. Catharine's daugh- 
ter Mary should be restored as heiress to the 
crown. These and other demands, the granting of 
which would have meant the death of the Refor- 
mation, were firmly refused by the king, who 
marveled that ignorant churls, ^' brutes and inexpert 
folk " should talk of theological and political sub- 
jects to him and to his council. 

After several ineffectual attempts to meet the 
royal army in battle, partly due to storms and lack 
of subsistence, the rebels were induced to disperse 
and a general amnesty was declared. But new 
insurrections broke out in various quarters, and the 
enraged king determined to stamp out the smolder- 
ing fires of sedition. About seventy-five persons 
were hanged, and many prominent men were impris- 
oned and afterwards executed. This effectually 
suppressed the rebellion. 



328 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

The revolt showed the strength of the opponents 
to the king's will, but it also proved conclusively 
that the monarchy was the strongest power in the 
realm ; that the star of ecclesiastical domination had 
set forever in England ; that henceforth English 
kings and not Italian popes were to govern the 
English people. True, the king was carrying 
things with a high hand, but one reform at a time ; 
the yoke of papal power must first be lifted, even 
if at the same time the king becomes despotic in 
the exercise of his increased power. Once free 
from Rome, constitutional rights may be asserted 
and the power of an absolute monarchy judiciously 
restricted. 

Following the Pilgrimage of Grace came the 
complete overthrow of the monastic system by the 
dissolution of the larger monasteries. 

Henry's Disposal of Monastic Revenues 

What use did Henry make of the revenues that 
fell into his hands ? As soon as the vast estates of 
the monks were under the king's control, he was 
besieged by nobles, " praying for an estate." They 



I 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 329 

kneeled before him and specified what lands they 
wanted. They bribed Cromwell, who sold many of 
the estates at the rate of a twenty years' purchase, 
and in some instances presented valuable posses- 
sions to the king's followers. Many families, 
powerful in England at the present time, date the 
beginning of their wealth and position to the day 
when their ancestors received their share of the 
king's plunder. 

The following interesting passage from Sir 
Edward Coke's Institutes, shows that Henry 
sought to quiet the fears of the people by making 
the most captivating promises concerning the 
decrease of taxes, and other magnificent schemes for 
the general welfare : *^ On the king's behalf, the 
members of both houses were informed in Parlia- 
ment that no king or kingdom was safe but where 
the king had three abilities : i . To live of his own 
and able to defend his kingdom upon any sudden 
invasion or insurrection. 2. To aid his confeder- 
ates, otherwise they would never assist him. 3. To 
reward his well-deserving servants. Now the pro- 
ject was, that if Parliament would give unto him all 
the abbeys, priories, friaries, nunneries, and other 



330 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

monasteries, that forever in time then to come he 
would take order that the same should not be con- 
verted to private uses, but first, that his exchequer, 
for the purpose aforesaid, should be enriched ; sec- 
ondly, the kingdom should be strengthened by a 
continual maintenance of forty thousand well-trained 
soldiers ; thirdly, for the benefit and ease of the 
subject, who never afterwards (as was projected), in 
any time to come, should be charged with subsidies, 
fifteenths, loans or other common aids ; fourthly, 
lest the honor of the realm should receive any dim- 
inution of honor by the dissolution of the said 
monasteries, there being twenty-nine lords of Par- 
liament of the abbots and priors, . . . that 
the king would create a number of nobles." 

The king was granted the revenues of the mon- 
asteries. About half the money was expended in 
coast defences and a new navy ; and much of it was 
lavished upon his courtiers. With the exception 
of small pensions to the monks and the establish- 
ment of a few benefices, very little of the splendid 
revenue was ever devoted to religious or educational 
purposes. Small sums were set apart for Cam- 
bridge, Oxford and new grammar schools. Not- 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 331 

withstanding the pensions, there was much suffering ; 
it is said many of the outcast monks and nuns 
starved and froze to death by the roadside. Latimer 
and others wanted the king to employ the revenues 
for religious purposes, but Henry evidently thought 
the church had enough and refused. He did, 
however, intend to allot eighteen thousand pounds 
a year for eighteen new bishoprics, but once the 
gold was in his possession, his pious intentions suf- 
fered a decline, and he established only six, with 
inferior endowments, five of which exist to-day. 

Was the Suppression Justifiable? 

It is quite common to restrict this inquiry to a 
consideration of the report made by the commis- 
sioners against the monks, and to the methods 
employed by them in their investigations. The 
implication is that if the accusations against the 
monasteries can be discredited, or if it can be shown 
that the motives of the destroyers were selfish and 
their methods cruel, then it follows that the over- 
throw of the monasteries was a most iniquitous and 
unwarrantable proceeding. Reflection will show 



332 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

that the question cannot be so restricted. It may be 
found that the monastic institution should have been 
destroyed, even though the charges against the monks 
were grossly exaggerated, the motives of the king 
unworthy, and the means he employed despicable. 

At the outset a few facts deserve mention. It is 
usual for Protestants to recall with pride the 
glorious heroism of Protestant martyrs, but it 
should be remembered that Roman Catholicism 
also has had its martyrs. Protestant powers have 
not been free from tyranny and bloodshed. That 
noble spirit of self-sacrifice which has glorified many 
a character in history is not to be despised in one | 
who dies for what we may pronounce to be false. 

It must also be granted that the action of the 
king was not dictated by a pure passion for religious | 
reform. Indeed it is a fair question whether Henry 
may be claimed by the Protestants at all. Aside 
from his rejection of the pope's authority, he was 
thoroughly Catholic in conviction and in practice. 
His impatience with the pope's position respecting 
his divorce, his need of money, his love of power, 
and many other personal considerations determined 
his attitude toward the papacy. 



FALL of the MONASTERIES ^Z:^ 

It should also be freely conceded that the royal 
commissioners were far from exemplary characters, 
and that they were often insolent and cruel in the 
prosecution of their work. 

" Our posterity," says John Bale, " may well 
curse this wicked fact of our age ; this unreasonable 
spoil of England's most noble antiquities." " On 
the whole," says Blunt, " it may be said that we 
must ever look back on that destruction as a series 
of transactions in which the sorrow, the waste, the 
impiety that were wrought, were enough to make 
the angels weep. It may be true that the monastic 
system had worn itself out for practical good ; or at 
least, that it was unfitted for those coming ages 
which were to be so different from the ages that 
were past. But slaughter, desecration and wanton 
destruction, were no remedies for its sins, or its 
failings ; nor was covetous rapacity the spirit of ref- 
ormation." 

Hume observes that " during times of faction, 
especially of a religious kind, no equity is to be 
expected from adversaries ; and as it was known 
that the king's intention in this visitation was to 
find a pretext for abolishing the monasteries, we 



334 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

may naturally conclude that the reports of the com- 
missioners are very little to be relied upon.'* Hal- 
lam declares that " it is impossible to feel too much 
indignation at the spirit in which the proceedings 
were conducted." 

But these and other just and honorable conces- 
sions in the interests of truth, which are to be found 
on the pages of eminent Protestant historians, are 
made to prove too much. It must be said that 
writers favorable to monasticism take an unfair 
advantage of these admissions, which simply testify 
to a spirit of candor and a love of truth, but do not 
contain the final conclusions of these historians. 
Employing these witnesses to confirm their opin- 
ions, the defenders of monasticism proceed with 
fervid, glowing rhetoric, breathing devotion and love 
on every page, to paint the sorrows and ruin of the 
Carthusian Fathers, and the abbots of Glastonbury 
and Reading. They ask, " Is this your boasted 
freedom, to slay these men in cold blood, not for 
immorality, but because they honestly did not 
acknowledge what no Protestant of to-day admits, 
viz. : that King Henry was the Supreme Head of 
the Church ? " Having pointed out the exag- 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 335 

gerations in the charges against the monks and 
having made us weep for the aged fathers of the 
Charterhouse, they skillfully lead the unwary to 
the conclusion that the suppression should never 
have taken place. This conclusion is illogical. 
The case is still open. 

Furthermore, if one cared to indulge in historical 
reminiscences, he might justly express astonishment 
that Rome should object to an investigation con- 
ducted by men whose minds were already made up, 
or that she should complain because force was 
employed to carry out a needed reform. Did the 
commissioners take a few altar-cloths and decorate 
their horses ? Did Rome never adorn men in gar- 
ments of shame and parade them through streets to 
be mocked by the populace, and finally burned at 
the stake ? Were the altar-cloths dear to Catholic 
hearts ? Were not the Bibles burned in France, 
in Germany, in Spain, in Holland, in England, dear 
to the hearts of the reformers ? But however justi- 
fiable such a line of argument may be, there is little 
to be gained by charging the sins of the past against 
the men of to-day. Nevertheless, if these facts 
and many like them were remembered, less would 



;^36 MONKS an^ MONASTERIES 

be said about the cruelties that accompanied the 
suppression of the monasteries. 

Were the charges against the monks true ? It 
seems impossible to doubt that in the main they 
were, although it should be admitted that many- 
monasteries were beyond reproach. Eliminating 
gross exaggerations, lies and calumnies, there still 
remains a body of evidence that compels the verdict 
of guilt. The legislation of the church councils, the 
decrees of popes, the records of the courts, the reports 
of investigating committees appointed by various 
popes, the testimony of the orders against each other, 
the chronicles, letters and other extant literature, 
abound in such detailed, specific charges of monastic 
corruption that it is simply preposterous to reject the 
testimony. All the efforts at reformation, and they 
were many, had failed. Many bishops confessed 
their inability to cope with the growing disorders. 
It is beyond question that lay robbers were encour- 
aged to perpetrate acts of sacrilege because the 
monks were frequently guilty of forgery and vio- 
lence. Commenting upon the impression which 
monkish lawlessness must have made upon the 
minds of such men as Wyclif, Pike says : " They 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 337 

saw with their own eyes those wild and lawless 
scenes, the faint reflection of which in contempora- 
neous documents may excite the wonder of modern 
lawyers and modern moralists." The legislation 
of church and state for a century before Henry 
VI I L shows that the monks were guilty of brawl- 
ing, frequenting taverns, indulging in licentious 
pleasures and upholding unlawful games. 

Bonaventura, the General of the Franciscan 
Order in its earliest days, and its palmiest, for the 
first years of a monastic order were always its best 
years — this mendicant, their pride and their glory, 
tells us that within fifty years of the death of its 
founder there were many mendicants roaming 
around in disorderly fashion, brazen and shameless 
beggars of scandalous fame. This unenviable 
record was kept up down to the days of Wyclif, 
who charged the begging friars with representing 
themselves as holy and needy, while they were 
robust of body, rich in possessions, and dwelt in 
splendid houses, where they gave sumptuous ban- 
quets. What shall one say of the hysterical ravings 
against Henry of the "Holy Maid of Kent," 

whose fits and predictions were palmed oflF by ^y^ 

12 



338 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

ecclesiastics, high in authority, as supernatural man- 
ifestations? What must have been the state of 
monasteries in which such meretricious schemes 
were hatched, to deceive silly people, thwart the 
king and stop the movements for reform ? 

Moreover, the various attempts to reform or to 
suppress the monasteries prior to Henry's time 
show he was simply carrying out what, in a small 
way, had been attempted before. King John, 
Edward I. and Edward III., had confiscated "alien 
priories." Richard II. and Henry IV. had made 
similar raids. In 1410, the House of Commons 
proposed the confiscation of all the temporalities held 
by bishops, abbots and priors, that the money might 
be used for a standing army, and to increase the 
income of the nobles and secular clergy. It was not 
done, but the attempt shows the trend of public 
opinion on the question of abolishing the mon- 
asteries. In 141 6, Parliament dissolved the alien 
priories and vested their estates in the crown. 
There is extant a letter of Cardinal Morton, Legate 
of the Apostolic See, and Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, to the abbot of St. Albans, one of the mightiest 
abbeys in all England. It was written as the result 



FALL of the MONASTERIES i^'^c) 

of an investigation started by Innocent VIII., in 
1489. In this communication the abbot and his 
monks were charged with the grossest licentiousness, 
waste and thieving* Lina Eckenstein, in her inter- 
esting work on "Woman Under Monasticism," says: 
" It were idle to deny that the state of discipline in 
many houses was bad, but the circumstances under 
which Morton's letter was penned argue that the 
charges made in it should be accepted with some 
reservation. In 1523, Cardinal Wolsey obtained 
bulls from the pope authorizing the suppression of 
forty small monasteries, and the application of their 
revenues to educational institutions, on the ground 
that the houses were homes neither of religion nor 
of learning. 

What Henry did, every country in Europe has 
felt called upon to do in one way or another. 
Germany, Italy, Spain, France have all suppressed 
monasteries, and despite the suffering which attended 
the dissolution in England, the step was taken with 
less loss of life and less injury to the industrial wel- 
fare of the people than anywhere else in Europe.* 

Hooper, who was made a bishop in the reign of 

^Appendix, Note J. 



340 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Edward VI., expressed the Protestant view of 
Henry's reforms in a letter written about the year 
1546. "Our king/' he says, "has destroyed the 
pope, but not popery. . . . The impious 
mass, the most shameful celibacy of the clergy, the 
invocation of saints, auricular confession, supersti- 
tious abstinence from meats, and purgatory, were 
never before held by the people in greater esteem 
than at the present moment." In other words, the 
independence of the Church of England was secured 
by those who, if they were not Roman Catholics, 
were certainly closer in faith to Rome than they 
were to Protestantism. The Protestant doctrines 
did not become the doctrines of the Church of 
England until the reign of Edward VI., and it was 
many years after that before the separation from 
Rome was complete in doctrine as well as respects 
the authority of the pope. 

These facts indicate that there must have been 
other causes for the success of the English Refor- 
mation than the greed or ambition of the monarch. 
Those causes are easily discovered. One of them 
was the hostility of the people to the alien priories. 
The origin of the alien priories dates back to the 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 341 

Norman conquest. The Normans shared the spoils 
of their victory with their continental friends. 
English monasteries and churches were given to 
foreigners, who collected the rents and other kinds 
of income. These foreign prelates had no other 
interest in England than to derive all the profit 
they could from their possessions. They appointed 
whom they pleased to live in their houses, and the 
monks, being far away from their superiors, became 
a source of constant annoyance to the English 
people. The struggle against these alien priories 
had been carried on for many years, and so many of 
them had been abolished that the people became 
accustomed to the seizure of monasteries. 

Large sums of money were annually paid to the 
pope, and the English people were loudly complain- 
ing of the constant drain on their resources. It 
was a common saying in the reign of Henry III., 
that " England is the pope's farm." The " Good 
Parliament," in 1376, affirmed "that the taxes paid 
to the church of Rome amounted to ^y^ times as 
much as those levied for the king ; . . . that 
the brokers of the sinful city of Rome promoted 
for money unlearned and unworthy caitiffs to bene- 



342 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

fices of the value of a thousand marks, while thei 
poor and learned hardly obtain one of twenty." 
Various laws, heartily supported by the clergy as 
well as by the civil authorities, were enacted from 
time to time, aimed at the abuses of papal power. 
So steadfast and strong was the opposition to the 
interference of foreigners in English affairs, it would 
be possible to show that there was an evolution in 
the struggle against Rome that was certain to culmi- 
nate in the separation, whether Henry had accom- 
plished it or not. What might have occurred if the 
monks had reformed and the pope withdrawn his 
claims it is impossible to know. The fact is that the 
monks grew worse instead of better, and the arro- 
gance of foreigners became more unendurable. 
" The corruption of the church establishment, in 
fact," says Lea, "had reached a point which the 
dawning enlightenment of the age could not much 
longer endure. . . . Intoxicated with centuries 
of domination, the muttered thunders of growing 
popular discontent were unheeded, and its claims to 
spiritual and temporal authority were asserted with 
increasing vehemence, while its corruptions were 
daily displayed before the people with more careless 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 343 

cynicism." In view of this condition of affairs, the 
existence of which even the adherents of modern 
Rome must acknowledge, one cannot but wonder 
that the ruin of the monasteries should be attributed 
to Henry's desire " to overthrow the rights of 
women, to degrade matrimony and to practice con- 
cubinage." Such an explanation is too superficial ; 
it ignores a multitude of historical facts. 

The monasteries had to fall if England was to be 
saved from the horrors of civil war, if the hand of 
the pope was to remain uplifted from her, if the 
insecure gains of the Reformation were to become 
established and glorious achievements ; if, in fact, all 
those benefits accompanying human progress were 
to become the heritage of succeeding ages. 

Whatever benefits the monks had conferred 
upon mankind, and these were neither few nor 
slight, they had become fetters on the advancement 
of freedom, education and true religion. They 
were the standing army of the pope, occupying the 
last and strongest citadel. They were the unyield- 
ing advocates of an ideal that was passing away. It 
was sad to see the Carthusian house fall, but in spite 
of the high character of its inmates, it was a part of 



344 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

an institution that stood for the right of foreigners 
to rule England. It was unfortunate they had 
thrown themselves down before the car of progress, 
but there they were ; they would not get up ; the car 
must roll on, for so God himself had decreed, and 
hence they were crushed in its advance. Their 
martyrdom was truly a poor return for their virtues, 
but there never has been a moral or political revol- 
ution that has furthered the general well-being of 
humanity, in which just and good men have not suf- 
fered. 1 1 would be delightful if freedom and progress 
could be secured, and effete institutions destroyed 
or reformed, without the accompaniment of disaster 
and death, but it is not so. 

The monks stood for opposition to reform, and 
therefore came into direct conflict with the king, 
who was blindly groping his way toward the future, 
and who was, in fact, the unconscious agent of many 
reform forces that concentrated in him. He did 
not comprehend the significance of his proceedings. 
He did not take up the cause of the English peo- 
ple with the pure and intelligent motive of encour- 
aging free thought and free religion. He did not 
realize that he was leading the mighty army of Prot- 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 345 

I cstant reformers. He little dreamed that the people 
whose cause he championed would in turn assert 
their rights and make it impossible for an English 
sovereign to enjoy the absolute authority which he 
wielded. Truly " there is a power, not ourselves," 
making for freedom, progress and truth. 

Thus a number of causes brought on the ruin of 
the monasteries. Henry's need of money ; the 
refusal of the monks to sign the acts of supremacy 
and succession ; the general drift of reform, and the 
iniquity of the monks. They fell from natural 
causes and through the operation of laws which God 
alone controls. As Hill neatly puts it, " Monasti- 
cism was healthy, active and vigorous ; it became 
idle, listless and extravagant ; it engendered its own 
corruption, and out of that corruption came death." 
Richard Bagot, a Catholic, in a recent article on 
the question, " Will England become Catholic ? " 
which was published in the " Nuova Antologia," 
says : " Though it is impossible not to blame the 
so-called Reformers for the acts of sacrilege and 
barbarism through which they obtained the religious 
and political liberty so necessary to the intellectual 
and social progress of the race, it cannot be denied 



346 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

that no sooner had the power of the papacy come - 
to an end in England than the English nation 
entered upon that free development which has at last 
brought it to its present position among the other 
nations of the world." Mr. Bagot also admits that 
"the political intrigues and insatiable ambition of 
the papacy during the succeeding centuries consti- 
tuted a perpetual menace to England." 

The true view, therefore, is that two types of 
religious and political life, two epochs of human 
history, met in Henry's reign. The king and the 
pope were the exponents of conflicting ideals. The 
fall of the monasteries was an incident in the 
struggle. " The Catholics," says Froude, " had 
chosen the alternative, either to crush the free 
thought which was bursting from the soil, or to be 
crushed by it ; and the future of the world could 
not be sacrificed to preserve the exotic graces of 
medieval saints." 

The problem is reduced to this. Was the Refor- 
mation desirable ? Is Protestantism a curse or a 1 
blessing? Would England and the world be bet- 
ter oflT under the sway of medieval religion than 
under the influence of modern Protestantism ? If 



FALL op the MONASTERIES 347 

monasticism were a fetter on human liberty and 
industry, if the monasteries were " so many semi- 
naries of superstition and of folly," there was but 
one thing to do— to break the fetters and to destroy 
the monasteries. To have succeeded in so radical 
a reform as that begun by King Henry, with forty 
thousand monks preaching treason, would have 
been an impossibility. Henry cannot be blamed 
because the monks chose to entangle themselves 
with politics and to side with Rome as against the 
English nation. 

Results of the 'Dissolution 

Many important results followed the fall of the 
monasteries. The majority of the House of 
Lords was now transferred from the abbots to the 
lay peers. The secular clergy, who had been fight- 
ing the monks for centuries, were at last accorded 
their proper standing in the church. Numerous 
unjust ecclesiastical privileges were swept aside, and 
in many respects the whole church was strengthened 
and purified. Credulity and superstition began to 
decline. Ecclesiastical criminals were no longer able 



348 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

to escape the just penalty for their crimes. Natu- 
rally all these beneficent ends were not attained 
immediately. For a while there was great disorder 
and distress. Society was disturbed not only by the 
stoppage of monastic alms-giving, but the wandering 
monks, unaccustomed to toil and without a trade, 
increased the confusion. H 

In this connection it is well to point out that 
some writers make very much of the poverty 
relieved by the monks, and claim that the nobles, 
into whose hands the monastic lands fell, did almost 
nothing to mitigate the distresses of the unfortunate. 
But they ignore the fact that a blind and undiscrim- 
inating charity was the cause, and not the cure, of 
much of the miserable wretchedness of the poor. 
Modern society has learned that the monastic 
method is wholly wrong ; that fraud and laziness 
are fostered by a wholesale distribution of doles. 
The true way to help the poor is to enable the 
poor to assist themselves ; to teach them trades and 
give them work. The sociological methods of to- 
day are thoroughly anti-monastic. 

On the other hand, the infidel Zosimus, quoted 
by Gibbon, was not far wrong when he said " the 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 349 

monks robbed an empire to help a few beggars." 
The fact that the religious houses did distribute 
alms and entertain strangers is not disputed ; indeed 
it is pleasant to reflect upon this noble charity of 
the monks ; it is a bright spot in their history. 
But it is in no sense true that they deserve all the 
credit for relieving distress. They received the 
money for alms in the shape of rents, gifts and 
other kinds of income. Hallam says, " There can 
be no doubt that many of the impotent poor derived 
support from their charity. But the blind elee- 
mosynary spirit inculcated by the Romish church is 
notoriously the cause, not the cure, of beggary and 
wickedness. The monastic foundations, scattered 
in different countries, could never answer the ends 
of local and limited succor. Their gates might, 
indeed, be open to those who knocked at them for 
alms. . . . Nothing could have a stronger tend- 
ency to promote that vagabond mendicity which 
severe statutes were enacted to repress." 

It seems almost ungracious to quote such an 
observation, because it may be distorted into a crit- 
icism of charity itself, or made to serve the purposes 
of certain anti-Romanists who cannot even spare 



350 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

those noble women who minister to the sick in the 
home or hospital from their bigoted criticisms. 
Small indeed must be the soul of that man who 
permits his religious opinions to blind his eyes 
to the inestimable services of those heroic and 
self-sacrificing women. But even Roman Catholic 
students of social problems must recognize the folly 
of indiscriminate alms-giving. "In proportion as 
justice between man and man has declined, that 
form of charity which consists in giving money has 
been more quickened." The promotion of indus- 
try, the repression of injustice, the encouragement 
of self-reliance and thrift, are needed far more than 
the temporary relief of those who suffer from 
oppression or from their own wrong-doing. 

Some of those who deplore the fall of the mon- 
asteries make much of the fact that the modern 
world is menaced by materialism. " With very 
rare exceptions," cries Maitre, a French Catholic, 
" the most undisguised materialism has everywhere 
replaced the lessons and recollections of the spiritual 
life. The shrill voice of machinery, the grinding 
of the saw or the monotonous clank of the piston, 
is heard now, where once were heard chants and 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 351 

prayers and confessions. Once the monk freely 
undid the door to let the stranger in, and now we 
see a sign, ' no admittance,* lest a greedy rival pur- 
loin the tricks of trade." Montalembert, referring 
to the ruin of the cloisters in France, grieves thus : 
" Sometimes the spinning-wheel is installed under 
the ancient sanctuary. Instead of echoing night 
and day the praises of God, these dishonored arches 
too often repeat only the blasphemies of obscene 
cries." The element of truth in these laments 
gives them their sting, but one should beware of 
the fervid rhetoric of the worshipers of medieval- 
ism. This century is nobler, purer, truer, manlier, 
and more humane than any of the centuries that 
saw the greatest triumphs of the monks. They, too, 
had their blasphemies, often under the cloak of 
piety ; they, too, had their obscene cries. Their 
superstitions and frauds concealed beneath those 
" dishonored arches " were infinitely worse than the 
noise of machinery weaving garments for the poor, 
or producing household comforts to increase the 
happiness of the humblest man. 

There is much that is out of joint, much to jus- 
tify doleful prophecies, in the social and religious 



;^S2 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

conditions of the present age, but the signs of the 
times are not all ominous. At all events, nothing 
would be gained by a return to the monkish ideals 
of the past. The hope of the world lies in the 
further development and completer realization of 
those great principles of human freedom that dis- 
tinguish this century from the past. The history 
of monasticism clearly shows that the monasteries 
could not minister to that development of liberty, 
truth and justice, which constitute the indispensable 
condition of human happiness and human progress. 
Unable to adjust themselves to the new age, unwill- 
ing to welcome the new light, rejecting the doctrine 
of individual freedom, the monks were forced to 
retire from the field. 

So fell in England that institution which, for 
twelve centuries, had exercised marvelous dominion 
over the spiritual and temporal interests of the 
continent, and for eight hundred years had suffered 
or thrived on English soil. " The day came, and 
that a drear winter day, when its last mass was sung, 
its last censer waved, its last congregation bent in 
rapt and lovely adoration before the altar." Its 



FALL of the MONASTERIES 353 

jestic and solemn ruins proclaim its departed 
,ndeur. Its deeds of mercy, its conflicts with 
kmgs and bishops, its prayers and chants and pen- 
ances, its virtues and its vices, its trials and its vic- 
tories, its wealth and its poverty, all are gone. 
Silence and death keep united watch over cloister 
and tomb. We should be ungrateful if we forgot 
its blessings ; we should be untrue if, ignoring its 
evils, we sought to bring back to life that which 
God has laid in the sepulcher of the dead. 

" Where pleasant was the spot for men to dwell, 
Amid its fair broad lands the abbey lay, 
Sheltering dark orgies that were shame to tell, 
And cowled and barefoot beggars swarmed the way, 
All in their convent weeds of black, and white, and gray. 

From many a proud monastic pile, overthrown, 
Fear-struck, the brooded inmates rushed and fled ; 
The web, that for a thousand years had grown 
O'er prostrate Europe, in that day of dread 
Crumbled and fell, as fire dissolves the flaxen thread." 

— Bryant, 



VIII 

CAUSES AND IDEALS OF MONASTICISM 

jL LL FORMS of religious character and 

/ ^ conduct are grounded in certain cravings 

J m of the soul, which, in seeking satisfaction, 

are influenced by theoretical opinions. J 
The longings of the human heart constitute the 
impulse, or the energy, of religion. The intellectual j 
convictions act as guiding forces. As a religious ^ 
type, therefore, the monk was produced by the action 
of certain desires, influenced by specific opinions 
respecting God, the soul, the body, the world and 
their relations. 

The existence of monasticism in non-Christian 
religions implies that whatever impetus the ascetic 
impulses in human nature received from Christian 
teaching, there is some broader basis for monastic 
life than the tenets of any creed. Biblical his- 
tory and Christian theology furnish some explana- 

354 



CAUSES and IDEALS 355 

tion of the rise of Christian monasticism, but they 
do not account for the monks of ancient India. 
The teachings of Jesus exerted a profound influence 
upon the Christian monks, but they cannot explain 
the Oriental asceticism that flourished before the 
Christ of the New Testament was born. There 
must have been some motive, or motives, operating 
on human nature as such, a knowledge of which 
will help to account for the monks of Indian 
antiquity as well as the begging friars of modern 
times. It will therefore be in order to begin the 
present inquiry by seeking those causes which gave 
rise to monasticism in general. 

Causative Motives of Monasticism 

Whatever the origin of religion itself, it is certain 
that it is man's inalienable concern. He is, as Saba- 
tier says, '' incurably religious." Of all the motives 
ministering to this ruling passion, the longing for 
righteousness and for the favor of God is supreme. 
The savage only partially grasps the significance of 
his spiritual aspirations, and dimly understands the 
nature of the God he adores or fears. His worship 



3S6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

may be confined to frantic efforts to ward off the 
vengeful assaults of an angry deity, but however | 
gross his religious conceptions, there is at the heart 
of his religion a desire to live in peaceful relations 
with the Supreme Being. 

As religion advances, the ethical character of God 
and the nature of true righteousness are more 
clearly apprehended. But the idea that moral 
purity and fellowship with God are In some way 
associated with self-denial has always been held by 
the religious world. But what does such a concep- 
tion involve ? What must one do to deny self? 
The answer to that question will vastly influence 
the form of religious conduct. Thus while all 
religious men may unite in a craving for holiness 
by a participation in the Divine nature, they will 
differ widely in their opinions as to the nature of 
this desirable righteousness and as to the means by 
which it may be attained. Roman Catholicism, by 
the voice of the monk, whom It regards as the 
highest type of Christian living, gives one answer 
to these questions ; Protestantism, protesting against 
asceticism, gives a different reply. 

The desire for salvation was, therefore, the pri- 



CAUSES and IDEALS 357 

mary cause of all monasticism. Many quotations 
might be given from the sacred writings of India, 
establishing beyond dispute, that underlying the 
confusing variety of philosophical ideas and ascetic 
practices of the non-Christian monks, was a con- 
suming desire for the redemption of the soul from 
sin. Buddha said on seeing a mendicant, " The 
life of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. 
It will be my refuge and the refuge of other 
creatures, it will lead us to a real life, to happiness 
and immortality." 

Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the 
Buddha, at the World's Parliament of Religions, in 
Chicago, clearly showed that the aim of the 
Buddhist is " the entire obliteration of all that is 
evil," and ** the complete purification of the mind." 
That this is the purpose of the asceticism of India 
is seen by the following quotation from Dharma- 
pala's address : " The advanced student of the 
religion of Buddha when he has faith in him thinks : 
* Full of hindrances is household life, a path defiled 
by passions ; free as the air is the life of him who 
has renounced all worldly things. How diflicult is 
it for the man who dwells at home to live the 



3S8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

higher life in all its fullness, in all Its purity, in all 
its perfection ! Let me then cut off my hair and 
beard, let me clothe myself in orange-colored robes, 
and let me go forth from a household life into the 
homeless state ! ' " 

In the same parliament, Mozoomdar, the brilliant 
and attractive representative of the Brahmo Somaj, 
in describing " Asia*s Service to Religion,*' thus 
stated the motives and spirit of Oriental asceticism : 
" What lesson do the hermitages, the monasteries, 
the cave temples, the discipline and austerities of 
the religious East teach the world ? Renunciation. 
The Asiatic apostle will ever remain an ascetic, a 
celibate, a homeless Akinchana, a Fakeer. We 
Orientals are all the descendants of John the Bap- 
tist. Any one who has taken pains at spiritual 
culture must admit that the great enemy to a devout 
concentration of mind is the force of bodily and 
worldly desire. Communion with God is impossible, 
so long as the flesh and its lusts are not subdued. 
. . . It is not mere temperance, but positive 
asceticism ; not mere self-restraint, but self-mortifi- 
cation ; not mere self-sacrifice, but self-extinction ; 
not mere morality, but absolute holiness." And 



CAUSES and IDEALS 359 

further on in his address, Mozoomdar claimed that 
this asceticism is practically the essential principle in 
Christianity and the meaning of the cross of Christ : 
" This great law of self-effacement, poverty, suffer- 
ing, death, is symbolized in the mystic cross so dear 
to you and dear to me. Christians, will you ever 
repudiate Calvary ? Oneness of will and character 
is the sublimest and most difficult unity with God." 
The chief value of these quotations from 
Mozoomdar lies in the fact that they show forth the 
underlying motive of all asceticism. It would be 
unjust to the distinguished scholar to imply that he 
defends those extreme forms of monasticism which 
have appeared in India or in Christian countries. 
On the contrary, while he maintains, in his charm- 
ing work, " The Oriental Christ," that " the height 
of self-denial may fitly be called asceticism," 
he is at the same time fully alive to its dangerous 
exaggerations. '' Pride," he says, " creeps into the 
holiest and humblest exercises of self-discipline. 
It is the supremest natures only that escape. The 
practice of asceticism therefore is always attended 
with great danger." The language of Mozoomdar, 
however, like that of many Christian monastic writers. 



360 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

opens the door to many grave excesses. It is another 
evidence of the necessity for defining what one means 
by " self-mortification '* and " self-extinction." 

Turning now to Christian monasticism, it will be 
found that, as in the case of Oriental monasticism, 
the yearning for victory over self was uppermost in 
the minds of the best Christian monks. A few 
words from a letter written by Jerome to Rusticus, 
a young monk, illustrates the truth of this observa- 
tion : " Let your garments be squalid," he says, 
" to show that your mind is white, and your 
tunic coarse, to show that you despise the world. 
But give not way to pride, lest your dress and your 
language be found at variance. Baths stimulate 
the senses, and are therefore to be avoided." 

To keep the mind white, to despise the world, to 
overcome pride, to stop the craving of the senses 
for gratification, — these were the objects of the 
monks, in order to accomplish which they macerated 
and starved their bodies, avoided baths, wore rags, 
affected humble language and fled from the scenes 
of pleasure. The goal was highly commendable, 
even if the means employed were inadequate to 
produce the desired results. 



CAUSES and IDEALS 361 

All down through the Middle Ages, the idea 
continued to prevail that the monastic life was the 
highest and purest expression of the Christian 
religion, and that the monks* chances of heaven 
were much better than those of any other class of 
men. The laity believed them to be a little nearer 
God than even the clergy, and so they paid them 
gold for their prayers. It will readily be understood 
that in degenerate times, so profitable a doctrine 
would be earnestly encouraged by the monks. The 
knight, whose conscience revolted against his con- 
duct but who could not bring himself to a complete 
renunciation of the world, believed that heaven 
would condone his faults or crimes if in some way 
he could make friends with the dwellers in the 
cloister. To this end, he founded abbeys and 
sustained monasteries by liberal gifts of gold and 
land. Such a donation was made in the following 
language : " I, Gervais, who belong to the chivalry 
of the age, caring for the salvation of my soul, and 
considering that I shall never reach God by my own 
prayers and fastings, have resolved to recommend 
myself in some other way to those who, night and 
day, serve God by these practices, so that, thanks 



362 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

to their intercession, I may be able to obtain that 
salvation which I of myself am unable to merit/* 
Another endowment was made by Peter, Knight of 
MauU, in these quaint terms : " I, Peter, profiting 
by this lesson, and desirous, though a sinner and 
unworthy, to provide for my future destiny, I have 
desired that the bees of God may come to gather 
their honey in my orchards, so that when their fair 
hives shall be full of rich combs, they may be able 
to remember him by whom the hive was given." 

The people believed that the prayers of the 
monks lifted their souls into heaven ; that their 
curses doomed them to the bottomless pit. A 
monastery was the safe and sure road to heaven. 
The observation of Gibbon respecting the early 
monks is applicable to all of them : " Each prose- 
lyte who entered the gates of a monastery was per- 
suaded that he trod the steep and thorny path of 
eternal happiness." 

The second cause for monasticism in general was 

I a natural love of solitude, which became almost 

irresistible when reinforced by a despair of the world's 

redemption. The poet voiced the feelings of almost 

every soul, at some period in life, when he wrote : 



CAUSES and IDEALS i^G^ 

** O for a lodge in some vast wilderness, 
Some boundless contiguity of shade, 
Where rumor of oppression or deceit. 
Of unsuccessful or successful war. 
Might never reach me more." 

The longing for solitude accompanied the desire 
for salvation. An unconquerable weariness of the 
world, with its strife and passion, overcame the 
seeker after God. A yearning to escape the duties 
of social life, which were believed to interfere with 
one*s duty to God, possessed his soul. The flight 
from the world was merely the method adopted to 
satisfy his soul-longings. If such times of degener- 
acy and rampant iniquity ever return, if humanity is 
again compelled to stagger under the moral burdens 
that crushed the Roman Empire, without doubt 
the love of solitude, which is now held in check by 
the satisfactions of a comparatively pure and peace- 
ful social life, will again arise in its old-time strength 
and impel men to seek in waste and lonely places 
the virtues they cannot acquire in a decaying 
civilization. 

Even amid the delights of human fellowship, and 
surrounded by so much that ministers to restfulness 
of soul, it is often hard to repress a longing to 



364 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

shatter the fetters of custom, to flee from the noise 
and confusion of this hurrying, fretful world, and to 
pass one*s days in a coveted retirement, far from the 
maddening strife and tumult. Montalembert's pro- 
found appreciation of monastic life was never more 
aptly illustrated than in the following declaration : 
"In the depths of human nature there exists with- 
out doubt, a tendency instinctive, though confused 
and evanescent, toward retirement and solitude. 
What man, unless completely depraved by vice or 
weighed down by care and cupidity, has not experi- 
enced once, at least, before his death, the attraction 
of solitude ? " 

While the motives just described were unques- 
tionably preeminent among the causative factors in 
monasticism, it should not be taken for granted that 
there were no others, or that either or both of these 
motives controlled every monk. The personal 
considerations tending to keep up the flight from 
the world were numerous and active. It would be 
a mistake to credit all the monks, and at some 
periods even a majority of them, with pure and 
lofty purposes. Oftentimes criminals were par- 



CAUSES and IDEALS 365 

doned through the intercession of abbots on 
condition that they would retire to a monastery. 
The jilted lover and the commercial bankrupt, the 
deserted or bereaved wife, the pauper and the Invalid, 
the social outcast and the shirker of civic duties, 
the lazy and the fickle were all to be found in the 
ranks of the monastic orders. Ceasing to feel any 
interest in the joys of society, they had turned to 
the cloister as a welcome asylum in the hour of 
their sorrow or disappointment. To some it was 
an easy way out of the struggle for existence, to 
others it meant an end to taxes and to military 
service, to still others it was a haven of rest for 
a weary body or a disappointed spirit. Thus 
many specific, individual considerations acted with 
the general desires for salvation and solitude to 
strengthen and to perpetuate the institution. 

Beliefs Affecting the Causative Motives 

In the first chapter it was shown that a variety of 
views respecting the relation of the body and the 
soul Influenced the origin and development of 
Christian monasticism. It will not now be neces- 



^66 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

sary to repeat what was there said. The essential 
teaching of all these false opinions was that the body 
was in itself evil, that the gratification of natural 
appetites was inherently wrong, and that true holi- 
ness consisted in the complete subjection of the 
body by self-denial and torture. Jerome distinctly 
taught that what was natural was opposed to God. 
The Gnostics and many of the early Christians 
believed that this world was ruled by the devil. 
The Gnostics held that this opposition of the king- 
dom of matter to God was fundamental and eternal. 
The Christians, however, maintained that the antag- 
onism was temporary, the Lord having given the 
world over to evil spirits for a time. The prevailing 
opinion among almost all schools was that a union 
with God was only possible to those who had extin- 1 
guished bodily desires. 

The ascetic theory undoubtedly derived much 
support from the views held concerning the teach- 
ings of the Bible. The Oriental monks frequently 
quoted from their sacred books to justify their 
habits and ideals. In like manner, the Christian 
monks believed that they, and they alone, were 
literally obeying the commands of Christ and his 



CAUSES and IDEALS 367 

apostles. This phase of the subject will receive 
attention when the three vows of monasticism are 
considered. 

In the West, two conditions, one political and ] 
social, the other religious, set in motion all these 
spiritual desires and ascetic beliefs tending toward 
monasticism. One was the corrupted state of 
Roman society and the approaching overthrow of 
the Roman Empire. The other was the seculari- 
zation of the church. 

Men naturally cling to society as long as there 
exists any well-founded hope for its regeneration, 
but when every expectation for the survival of right- 
eousness yields to a conviction that doom is inevi- 
table, then the flight from the world begins. This 
was precisely the situation in the declining days of 
Rome and Alexandria, when Christian monasticism 
came into being. The monks believed that the end 
of the world was nigh, that all things temporal and 
earthly were doomed, and that God's hand was 
against the empire. " That they were correct in 
their judgment of the world about them," says 
Kingsley, " contemporary history proves abundantly. 
That they were correct, likewise, in believing that 



368 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

some fearful judgment was about to fall on man, is J 
proved by the fact that it did fall." ^ 

So they fled to escape being caught in the ruins 
of society's tottering structure, — fled to make 
friends with the angels and with God. If one 
cannot live purely in the midst of corruption, by all 
means let him live purely away from corruption, 
but let him never forget that his piety is of a lower 
order than that which abides uncorrupted in the 
midst of degenerate society. There is much truth 
in the observation of Charles Reade in "The 
Cloister and the Hearth ** : " So long as Satan walks 
the whole earth, tempting men, and so long as the ; 
sons of Belial do never lock themselves in caves but 
run like ants, to and fro corrupting others, the 
good man that sulks apart, plays the Devil's game, 
or at least gives him the odds." 

But the early Christian monks believed that their 
safety was only in flight. It was not altogether an 
unworthy motive ; at least it is easy to sympathize 
with these men struggling against odds, of the 
magnitude of which the modern Christian has only 
the faintest conception. 

The conviction that the only true and certain 



CAUSES and IDEALS 369 

way to secure salvation is by flight from the world, 
continued to prevail during the succeeding centuries 
of monastic history, and it can hardly be said to 
have entirely disappeared even at the present time. 
Anselm of Canterbury, in the twelfth century, 
wrote to a young friend reminding him that the 
glory of this world was perishing. True, not monks 
only are saved, " but," says he, " who attains to 
salvation in the most certain, who in the most noble 
way, the man who seeks to love God alone, or 
he who seeks to unite the love of God with the 
love of the world? . . . Is it rational when 
danger is on every side, to remain where it is the 
greatest ? '' 

The Christian church set up an ideal of life 
which it was impossible to realize within her 
borders, and one which differed in many respects 
from the teachings of Jesus. Her demands involved 
a renunciation of the world, a superiority to all the 
enticements of bodily appetites, a lofty scorn of 
secular bonds and social concerns. A vigorous 
religious faith had conquered a mighty empire, but 
corruption attended its victory. The standard of 
Christian morals was lowered, or had at least degen- 

24 



370 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

erated into a cold, formal ideal that no one was] 
expected to realize ; hence none strove to attain it 
but the monks. When Roman society with its self- 
ishness, lust and worldliness, swept in through the' 
open doors of the church and took possession of the 
sanctuary, those who had cherished the ascetic ideal 
gave up the fight against the world, and the flight 
from the world-church began. They could not 
tolerate this union of the church with a pagin state 
and an effete civilization. In some respects, as a few 
writers maintain, many of these hermits were like 
the old Jewish prophets, fighting single-handed 
against corruption in church and state, refusing to 
yield themselves as slaves to the authority of institu- 
tions that had forsaken the ideals of the past. 

Thus the conviction that the end of human 
society was nigh, and that the church could no 
longer serve as an asylum for the lovers of right- 
eousness, with certain philosophical ideas respecting 
the body, the world and God, united to produce 
the assumption that salvation was more readily 
attainable in the deserts ; and Christian monasticism, 
in its hermit form, began its long and eventful 
history. 



CAUSES and IDEALS 371 

Causes of Variations in Monastlcism 

Prominent among the causes producing variations 
in the monastic type was the influence of climatic 
conditions and race characteristics. 

The monasticism as well as the religion of the 
East has always differed from the monasticism and 
the religion of the West. The Eastern mind is 
mystical, dreamy, contemplative ; the Western mind 
loves activity, is intensely practical. Representatives 
of the Eastern faiths in the recent Parliament of 
Religions accused the West of materialism, of loving 
the body more than the soul. They affected to 
despise all material prosperity, and gloried in their 
assumed superiority, on account of their love for 
religious contemplation. This radical difference 
between the races of the East and West is clearly 
seen in the monastic institution. Benedict embodied 
in his rules the spirit and active life of the West, 
and hence, the monastic system, then in danger of 
dying, or stagnating, revived and spread all over 
Europe. Again, the hermit life was ill-adapted to 
the West. Men could not live out of doors in 



372 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

Europe and subsist on small quantities of food as 
in Egypt. The rigors of the climate in Europe 
demanded an adaptation to new conditions. 

But aside from the differences between Eastern 
and Western monasticism, the Christian institution 
passed through a variety of changes. The growth 
of monasticism from the hermit stage to the cloistral 
life has already been described. To what shall the 
development of the community system be attrib- 
uted ? No religious institution can remain station- 
ary, unaffected by the changing conditions of the 
society in which it exists. The progress of the 
intellect, and the development of social, political 
and industrial conditions, effect great transformations 
in religious organizations. 

The monastic institution grew up amid the 
radical changes of European society. In its 
early days it witnessed the invasion of the 
barbarians, which swept away old political divisions 
and destroyed many of the heritages of an ancient 
civilization. Then the process of reconstruction 
slowly began. New states were forming; nations 
were crystallizing. The barbarian was to lay the 
foundations of great cities and organize powerful 



CAUSES and IDEALS 373 

commonwealths out of wild but victorious tribes. 
The monk could not remain in hiding. He was 
brother to the roving warrior. The blood in his 
veins was too active to permit him to stand still 
amid the mighty whirl of events. Without entirely- 
abandoning his cloistral life, he became a zealous 
missionary of the church among the barbarians, a 
patron of letters and of agriculture, in short a stir- 
ring participant in the work of civilization. 

Next came the crusades. Jerusalem was to be 
captured for Christ and the church. The monk 
then appeared as a crusade-preacher, a warrior on 
the battle-field, or a nurse in the military hospital. 

The rise of feudalism likewise wrought a change 
in the spirit and position of the monks. The 
feudal lord was master of his vassals. " The genius 
of feudalism," says Allen, " was a spirit of uncon- 
trolled independence." So the abbot became a 
feudal lord with immense possessions and powers. 
He was no longer the obscure, spiritual father of a 
little family of monks, but a temporal lord also, an 
aristocrat, ruling wide territories, and dwelling in a 
monastery little different from the castle of the 
knight and often exceeding it in splendor. With 



374 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

wealth came ease, and hard upon the heels of ease 
came laziness, arrogance, corruption. 

Then followed the marvelous intellectual awaken- 
ing, the moral revival, the discoveries and inventions 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The human 
mind at last had aroused itself from a long repose, 
or turned from a profitless activity into broad and 
fruitful fields. The corruption of the monasteries 
meant the laxity of vows, the cessation of minis- 
tration to the poor and the sick. Then arose the 
tender and loving Francis, with his call to poverty 
and to service. The independent exercise of the 
intellect gave birth to heresies, but the Dominicans 
appeared to preach them down. 

The growth of the secular spirit and the progress 
of the new learning were too much for the old mon- 
asticism. The monk had to adapt himself to a new 
age, an age that is impatient of mere contempla- 
tion, that spurns the rags of the begging friar and 
rebels against the fierce intolerance of the Dominican 
preaching. So, lastly, came the suave, deter- 
mined, practical, cultured Jesuit, ready to comply, 
at least outwardly, with all the requirements of 
modern times. Does the new age reject monastic 



CAUSES and IDEALS 375 

seclusion ? Very well, the Jesuit throws off his mon- 
astic garb and forsakes his cloister, to take his place 
among men. Are the ignorance and the filth of the 
begging friars offensive ? The Jesuit is cultured, 
affable and spotlessly clean. Does the new age 
demand liberty ? '^ Liberty,'' cries the Jesuit, " is 
the divine prerogative, colossal in proportion, 
springing straight from the broad basin of the souFs 
essence ! " 

Such in its merest outlines is the story of the 
development of the monastic type and its causes. 

T!he Fundamental Monastic Vows 

The ultimate monastic ideal was the purification 
of the soul, but when translated into definite, con- 
crete terms, the immediate aim of the monk was 
to live a life of poverty, celibacy and obedience. 
Riches, marriage and self-will were regarded as forms 
of sinful gratification, which every holy man should 
abandon. The true Christian, according to monas- 
ticism, is poor, celibate and obedient. The three 
fundamental monastic vows should therefore receive 
special consideration. 



376 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

I. The Vow of Poverty. The monks of all 
countries held the possession of riches to be 
a barrier to high spiritual attainments. In view of 
the fact that an inordinate love of wealth has proved 
disastrous to many nations, and that it is extremely 
difficult for a rich man to escape the hardening, 
enervating and corrupting influences of affluence, 
the position of the monks on this question is 
easily understood. The Christian monks based 
their vow of poverty upon the Bible, and especially 
upon the teachings of Christ, who, though he was 
rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He said to the 
rich young man, " Sell all that thou hast and give 
to the poor." In commissioning the disciples to 
preach the gospel He said : " Provide neither gold, 
nor silver, nor brass in your purses ; nor scrip for 
your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes." In 
the discourse on counting the cost of discipleship. 
He said : " So therefore, whosoever he be of you 
that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot 
be my disciple." He promised rewards to " every 
one that left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or 
father, or mother, or children, or lands for my 
name's sake." " It is easier," He once said, " for a 



CAUSES and IDEALS 377 

camel to go through a needle's eye than for a 
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." 
He portrayed the pauper Lazarus as participating 
in the joys of heaven, while the rich Dives endured 
the torments of the lost. As reported in Luke, 
He said, " Blessed are ye poor." He Himself 
was without a place to lay His head, a houseless 
wanderer upon the earth. 

The apostle James cries to the men of wealth : 
" Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl, for your 
miseries that shall come upon you." John said : 
" Love not the world, neither the things that are in 
the world. If any man love the world, the love of 
the Father is not in him." 

Whatever these passages, and many others of like 
imporif, may signify, it is not at all strange that 
Christians, living in times when wealth was abused, 
and when critical Biblical scholarship was unknown, 
should have understood Christ to command a life 
of poverty as an indispensable condition of true 
holiness. 

There are three ways of interpreting Christ's doc- 
trine of wealth. First, it may be held that Jesus 
intended His teachings to be literally obeyed, not 



378 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

only by His first disciples but by all His followers in 
subsequent years, and that such literal obedience is 
practicable, reasonable and conducive to the highest 
well-being of society. Secondly, it has been said 
that Jesus was a gentle and honest visionary, who 
erroneously believed that the possession of riches 
rendered religious progress impossible, but that strict 
compliance with His commands would be destructive 
of civilization. Laveleye declares that " if Christ- 
ianity were taught and understood conformably to 
the spirit of its Founder, the existing social organism 
could not last a day." Thirdly, neither of these 
views seems to do justice to the spirit of Christ, 
for they fail to give proper recognition to many 
other injunctions of the Master and to many 
significant incidents in his public ministry. Exhaus- 
tive treatment of this subject is, of course, imposs- 
ible here. Briefly it may be remarked, that Jesus 
looked upon wealth as tending oftentimes to foster 
an unsocial spirit. Rich men are liable to become 
enemies of the brotherhood Jesus sought to estab- 
lish, by reason of their covetousness and contracted 
sympathies. The rich man is in danger of erecting 
false standards of manhood, of ignoring the highest 



CAUSES and IDEALS 379 

interests of the soul by an undue emphasis on the 
material. Wealth, in itself, is not an evil, but it is 
only a good when it is used to advance the real 
welfare of humanity. Jesus was not intent upon 
teaching economics. His purpose was to develop 
the man. It was the moral value and spiritual 
influence of material things that concerned him. 
Professor Shailer Mathews admirably states the true 
attitude of Jesus towards rich men : " Jesus was a 
friend neither of the working man nor the rich man 
as such. He calls the poor man to sacrifice as well 
as the rich man. He was the Son of Man, not the 
son of a class of men. But His denunciation is 
unsparing of those men who make wealth at the 
expense of souls ; who find in capital no incentive to 
further fraternity ; who endeavor so to use wealth as 
to make themselves independent of social obligations, 
and to grow fat with that which should be shared 
with society ; — for those men who are gaining the 
world but are letting their neighbors fall among 
thieves and Lazarus rot among their dogs.'* 

Jesus was therefore not a foe to rich men as such, 
but to that antisocial, abnormal regard for wealth 
and its procurements, which leads to the creation 



38o MONKS and MONASTERIES 

of class distinctions and impedes the full and 
free development of our common humanity 
along the lines of brotherly love and cooperation. 
A Christian may consistently be a rich man, pro- 
vided he uses his wealth in furthering the true \ 
interests of society, and realizes, as respects his own 
person, that " a man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things which he possesseth." i The 
error of monasticism consists in making poverty a 
virtue and an essential condition of the highest holi- 
ness.^ It is true that some callings preclude the 
prospect of fortune. The average clergyman 
cannot hope to amass wealth. The resident of a 
social settlement may possess capacities that would 
win success in business, but he must forego financial 
prospects if he expects to live and labor among the J 
poor. In so far as the monks deliberately turned 
their backs on the material rewards of human 
endeavors that they might be free to devote them- 
selves to the service of humanity, their vow of pov- 
erty was creditable and reasonable. But they erred 
when they exalted poverty as of itself commending 
them in a peculiar degree to the mercy of God. 
2. The Vow of Cehbacy. " The moral merit 



CAUSES and IDEALS 381 

of celibacy," says Allen, "was harder to make out 
of the Scripture, doubtless, since family life is both 
at the foundation of civil society and the source of 
all the common virtues." The monks held that 
Christ and Paul both taught and practiced celibacy. 
In the early and middle ages celibacy was looked 
upon by all churchmen as in itself a virtue. The 
prevailing modern idea is that marriage is a holy 
institution, in no sense inferior in sacredness to any 
ecclesiastical order of life. He who antagonizes 
it plays into the hands of the foes to social purity 
and individual virtue. 

The ideas of Jerome, Ambrose, and all the early 
Fathers, respecting marriage, are still held by many 
ecclesiastics. One of them, in defending the celi- 
bacy of existing religious orders, says : '' Celibacy 
is enjoined on these religious orders as a means to 
greater sanctification, greater usefulness, greater 
absorption in things spiritual, and to facilitate readier 
withdrawal from things earthly." He gives two 
reasons for the celibacy of the priesthood, which are 
all the more interesting because they substantially 
represent the opinions held by the Christian monks 
in all ages : First, " That the service of the priest 



382 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

to God may be undivided and unrestrained.'* In 
support of this, he quotes I. Cor., 7:32, ^3^ which 
reads : " But I would have you fiee from cares. He 
that is unmarried is careful for the things of the 
Lord, how he may please the Lord : but he that is 
married is careful for the things of the world, how 
he may please his wife." And secondly, *'' Celi- 
bacy," according to Trent, " is more blessed than 
marriage." He also quotes the v/ords of Christ 
that there are " eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's 
sake." He then adds : "It is desirable that 
those called to the ministry of the altar espouse a life 
of continence because holier and more angelic." 

It is generally admitted that the vow of celibacy 
was not demanded of the clergy in primitive Chris- 
tian times. It was only after many years of bitter 
debate and in response to the growing influence of 
the monastic ideal, that celibacy finally came to be 
looked upon as the highest form of Christian virtue, 
and was enforced upon the clergy. As in the case 
of the vow of poverty, there certainly can be no 
reasonable objection to the individual adoption of 
celibacy, if one is either disinclined to marriage or 
feels that he can do better work unmarried. But 



CAUSES and IDEALS 3S3 

neither Scripture nor reason justiiies the Imposition 
of celibacy upon any man, nor the view that a life of 
coniinence is holier than marriage. It may be rev- 
erently said that God would be making an unreason- 
able demand upon mankind, if the holiness He 
requires conflicted with the proper satisfaction of 
those impulses He himself has deeply implanted in 
human nature. 

3. The Vow of Obedience. The monks were 
required to render absolute obedience to the will 
of their superiors, as the representatives of God. 
Dom Guigo, in his rules for the Carthusian Order, 
declares : " Moreover, if the Prior commands one 
of his religious to take more food, or to sleep for a 
longer time, in fact, whatever command may be 
given us by our Superior, we are not allowed to 
disobey, lest we should disobey God also, who com- 
mands us by the mouth of our Superior. All our 
practices of mortification and devotion would be 
fruitless and of no value, without this one virtue of 
obedience, which alone can make them acceptable to 
God." 
1 Thus a strict and uncomplaining obedience, not 
\ to the laws of God as interpreted by the individual 



384 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

conscience, but to the judgment and will of a brother 
man, was demanded of the monks. 

" Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs not to make reply, | 
Theirs but to do and die." 



They were often severely beaten or imprisoned 
and sometimes mutilated for acts of disobedience. 
While the monks, especially the Friars and Jesuits, 
carried this principle of obedience to great extremes, 
yet in the barbarous ages its enforcement was 
sadly needed. Law and order were words which 
the untamed Goth could not comprehend. He had 
to be taught habits of obedience, a respect for the 
rights of others, and a proper appreciation of his 
duty to society for the common good. But while, 
at the beginning, the monastic vow of obedience 
helped to inculcate these desirable lessons, and vastly 
modified the ferocity of unchecked individualism, it 
tended, in the course of time, to generate a servile 
humility fatal to the largest and freest personal devel- 
opment. In the interests of passive obedience, it 
suppressed freedom of thought and action. Obedi- 
ence became mechanical and unreasoning. The 
consequence was that the passion for individual 



CAUSES and IDEALS 385 

liberty was unduly restrained, and the extravagant 
claims of political and ecclesiastical tyrants were 
greatly strengthened. 

Such was the monastic ideal and such were some 
of the means employed to realize it. The ascetic 
spirit manifests itself in a great variety of ways, but 
all these visible and changing externals have one 
common source. "To cherish the religious princi- 
ple," says William E. Channing, " some have warred 
against their social affections, and have led solitary 
lives ; some against their senses, and have abjured 
all pleasure in asceticism ; some against reason, and 
have supers titiously feared to think ; some against 
imagination, and have foolishly dreaded to read 
poetry or books of fiction ; some against the polit- 
ical and patriotic principles, and have shrunk from 
public affairs, — all apprehending that if they were 
to give free range to their natural emotions their 
religious life would be chilled or extinguished.*' 

25 



IX 

THE EFFECTS OF MONASTICISM 

"^^ TE READ HISTORY," said Wend- 

^/m/ ell Phillips, "not through our eyes 

Y T but through our prejudices." Yet 

if it were possible entirely to lay aside 

one's prepossessions respecting monastic history, it 

would still be no easy task to estimate the influences 

of the monks upon human life. 

In every field of thought and activity monasticism 
wrought good and evil. Education, industry, gov- 
ernment and religion have been both furthered and 
hindered by the monks. What Francis Parkman 
said of the Roman Catholic Church is true of the 
monastic institution : " Clearly she is of earth, not 
of heaven ; and her transcendently dramatic life 
is a type of the good and ill, the baseness and noble- 
ness, the foulness and purity, the love and hate, 

the pride, passion, truth, falsehood, fierceness, and 

386 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 387 

tenderness, that battle in the restless heart of man." 
A careful and sympathetic survey of monastic 
history compels the conclusion that monasticism, 
while not uniformly a blessing to the world, 
was not an unmitigated evil. The system presents 
one long series of perplexities and contradictions. 
One historian shuts his eyes to its pernicious effects, 
or at least pardons its transgressions, on the ground 
that perfection in man or in institutions is unattain- 
able. Another condemns the whole system, believ- 
ing that the sum of its evils far outweighs whatever 
benefits it may have conferred upon mankind. 
SchafF cuts the Gordian knot, maintaining that 
the contradiction is easily solved on the theory that 
it was not monasticism, as such, which has proved 
a blessing to the Church and the world. "It was 
Christianity in monasticism," he says, " which has 
done all the good, and used this abnormal mode of 
life as a means of carrying forward its mission of 
love and peace." 

To illustrate the diversities of opinion on this 
subject, and incidentally to show how difficult it is 
to present a well-balanced, symmetrically fair and 
just estimate of the monastic institution as a whole, 



388 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

contrast the opinions of four celebrated men. Pius 
IX. refers to the monks as " those chosen pha- 
lanxes of the army of Christ which have always been 
the bulwark and ornament of the Christian republic 
as well as of civil society.'* But then he was the 
Pope of Rome, the Arch-prelate of the Church. 
" Monk," fiercely demands Voltaire, " Monk, what 
is that profession of thine ? It is that of having 
none, of engaging one's self by an inviolable oath 
to be a fool and a slave, and to live at the expense 
of others.** But he was the philosophical skeptic 
of Paris. ^' Where is the town,** cries Montalem- 
bert, " which has not been founded or enriched or 
protected by some religious community ? Where 
is the church which owes not to them a patron, a 
relic, a pious and popular tradition ? Wherever 
there is a luxuriant forest, a pure stream, a majestic 
hill, we may be sure that religion has left there her 
stamp by the hand of the monk.** But this was 
Montalembert, the Roman Catholic historian, and 
the avowed champion of the monks. "A cruel, 
unfeeling temper,** writes Gibbon, " has distin- 
guished the monks of every age and country; their 
stern indiiference, which is seldom mollified by per- 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 389 

sonal friendship, is inflamed by religious hatred ; and 
their merciless zeal has strenuously administered the 
holy office of the Inquisition." But this was 
Gibbon, the hater of everything monastic. Between 
these extreme views lies a wide field upon which 
many a deathless duel has been fought by the 
writers of monastic history. 

The variety of judgments respecting the nature 
and effects of monasticism is partly due to the diver- 
sity in the facts of its history. Monasticism was 
the friend and the foe of true religion. It was the 
inspiration of virtue and the encouragement of vice. 
It was the patron of industry and the promoter of 
idleness. It was a pioneer in education and the 
teacher of superstition. It was the disburser of 
alms and a many-handed robber. It was the friend 
of human liberty and the abettor of tyranny. It 
was the champion of the common people and the 
defender of class privileges. It was, in short, every- 
thing that man was and is, so varied were its opera- 
tions, so complex was its influence, so comprehensive 
was its life. 

Of some things we may be certain. Any religious 
institution or ideal of life that has survived the 



390 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

changes of twelve centuries, and that has enlisted the 
enthusiastic services and warmest sympathies of 
numerous men and women who have been honorably 
distinguished for their intellectual attainments and 
moral character, must have possessed elements of 
truth and moral worth. A contemptuous treatment 
of monasticism implies either an ignorance of its 
real history or a wilful disregard of the deep signifi- 
cance of its commendable features. 

It is also certain that while the methods of monas- 
ticism, judged by their effects upon the individual and 
upon society, may be justly censured, it is beyond 
question that many monks, groping their way toward 
the light in an age of ignorance and superstition, were 
inspired by the purest motives. "Conscience," ob- 
serves Waddington, "however misguided, cannot be 
despised by a reflecting mind. When it leads one to 
self-sacrifice and moral fortitude we cannot but admire 
his spirit, while we condemn his sagacity and method." 

'The Effects of Self -Sacrifice Upon the Individual 

Christianity requires some sort of self-denial as 
the condition of true Christian discipleship. Self- 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 391 

love is to yield to a love of others. In some sense, 
the Christian is to become dead to the world and its 
demoralizing pleasures. But this primal demand 
upon the soul needs to be interpreted. What is it 
to love the world ? What is it to keep the body in 
subjection ? What are harmful indulgences ? To 
give wrong answers to these questions is to set up a 
false ideal ; the more strenuously such false ideal is 
followed, the more disastrous are the consequences. 
One's struggle for moral purity may end in failure, 
and one's efficiency for good may be seriously 
impaired by a perversion of the principle of self- 
abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive absti- 
nence often produce the opposite effect from that 
intended. Instead of a peaceful mind there is deli- 
rium, and instead of freedom from temptation there 
are a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air 
and ready, at any moment, to pounce upon their 
prey. " The history of ascetics," says Martensen, 
"teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy 
is often excited to an amazing degree, and in its airy 
domain affords the very things that one thought to 
have buried, by means of mortification, a magical 
resurrection." In attempting to subdue the body, 



392 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

many necessary requirements of the physical organ- 
ism were totally ignored. The body rebelled against 
such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely 
related to it, in its distraction, gave birth to the 
wildest fancies. Men, who would have possessed 
an ordinarily pure mind in some useful occupation 
of life, became the prey of the most lewd and 
obnoxious imaginations. Then they fancied them- 
selves vile above their fellows, and laid on more 
stripes, put more thorns upon their pillows, and 
fasted more hours, only to find that instead of flee- 
ing, the devils became blacker and more numerous. 
Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The 
monk thought otherwise, and slew himself in his 
vain attempt to fight against nature. He never 
lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always 
feeling his spiritual pulse, staring at his lean spiritual 
visage, and tearfully watching his growth in grace. 
An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong 
body are the best antidotes to religious despair and 
the temptations of the soul. Life in the monastery 
was generally less severe than in the desert^s solitude. 
There was more and better food, shelter, and com- 
fort, but there were many unnecessary and unnatural 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 393 

restrictions, even in the best days of monasticism. 
There were too many hours of prayer, too many 
needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, 
to produce a healthy, vigorous type of religious life. 

"T^he Effects of Solitude Upon the Individual, 

It has already been shown that some solitude is 
essential to our richest culture. Our higher nature 
demands time for reflection and meditation. -£ut 
the monks carried this principle to an extreme, an^x^ 
they overestimated its benefits. ^'Ambition, avarice, 
irresolution, fear, and inordinate desires," says Mon- 
taigne, "do not leave us because we forsake our 
native country, they often follow us even to cloisters 
and philosophical schools ; nor deserts, nor caves, 
nor hair shirts, nor fasts, can disengage us from 
them." 

Besides these passions, which the monks carried 
with them, their solitary life tended to foster spiri- 
tual pride, contract sympathy, and engender an 
inhumane spirit. True, there were exceptions ; but 
the sublime characters which survive in monastic 
history are by no means typical of its usual 



394 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

effects. Seclusion did not benefit the average monk. 
Indeed there is something wanting in even the lofti- 
est monastic characters. " The heroes of monasti- 
cism," says Allen, "are not the heroes of modern 
life. All put together, they would not furnish out 
one such soul as William of Orange, or Gustavus, 
or Milton. Independence of thought and liberty 
of conscience, they renounced once for all, in taking 
upon them the monastic vow. All the larger enter- 
prises, all the broad humanities, which to our mind 
/make a greater career, were rigidly shut off by a 
barrier that could not be crossed. All the warmth 
and wealth of social and domestic life was a field of 
forbidden fruit, to be entered only through the gate 
of unpardonable sin." 

Thus self-excluded from a normal life in society, 
often the subject of self-inflicted pain, it is no 
wonder that the monk impaired all the nobler and 
manlier feelings of the soul, that he became strangely 
indifferent to human affection, that bigotry and pride 
often sat as joint rulers on the throne of his heart. 
He who had trampled on all filial relations would 
scarcely recognize the bonds of human brotherhood. 
He who heard not the prayer of his own mother 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 395 

would not be likely to listen to the cry of the tor- 
tured heretic for mercy. Man as man was not rev- 
erenced. It was the monk in man who was esteemed. 
As Milman puts it, " Bigotry has always found its 
readiest and sternest executioners among those who 
have never known the charities of life." 

Nor is it a matter of surprise that the monk was 
spiritually proud. He was supposed to stand in 
the inner circle, a little nearer the throne of God 
than his fellow-mortals. When dead, he was wor- 
shiped as a saint and regarded as an intercessor 
between God and his lower fellow-creatures. His 
hatred of the base world easily passed over into a 
sense of superiority and ignoble pride. 

" True social life," says Martensen, " leads to 
solitude." This truth the monks emphasized to 
the exclusion of the converse, " true life in solitude 
leads back to society." John Tauler, the mystic 
monk, realized this truth when he said : " If God 
calls me to a sick person, or to the service of preach- 
ing, or to any other service of love, I must follow, 
although I am in the state of highest contempla- 
tion." The hermits of the desert, and too often the 
monks of the cloister, escaped from all such services, 



396 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

and selfishly gave themselves up to saving their own 
souls by contemplation and prayer. Ministration 
to the needy is the external side of the inner religious 
life. It is the fruit of faith and prayer. The monk 
sought solitude, not for the purpose of fitting him- 
self for a place in society, but for selfish, personal 
ends. Saint Bruno, in a letter to his friend Ralph 
le Verd, eulogizes the solitude of the monastic cell, 
and among other sentiments he gives expression to 
the following : " I am speaking here of the contem- 
plative life ; and although its sons are less numerous 
than those of active life, yet, like Joseph and Ben- 
jamin, they are infinitely dearer to their Father. 
. . . O my brother, fear not then to fly from 
the turmoil and the misery of the world ; leave the 
storms that rage without, to shelter yourself in this 
safe haven." 

Thus sinful and sorrowing humanity, needing the 
guidance and comfort that holy men can furnish, 
was forgotten in the desire for personal peace and 
future salvation. 

Another baneful result of isolation was the stran- 
gulation of filial love. When the monk abandoned 
the softening, refining influence of women and chil- 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 397 

dren, one side of his nature suffered a serious con- 
traction. An Egyptian mother stood at the hut of 
two hermits, her sons. Weeping bitterly, she begged 
to see their faces. To her piteous entreaties, they 
said : " Why do you, who are already stricken with 
age, pour forth such cries and lamentations ? " "It 
is because I long to see you,*' she replied. " Am I 
not your mother ? I am now an old and wrinkled 
woman, and my heart is troubled at the sound of 
your voices." But even a mother's love could not 
cope with their fearful fanaticism, and she went away 
with their cold promise that they would meet in 
heaven. St. John of Calama visited his sister in 
disguise, and a chronicler, telling the story after- 
wards, said, " By the mercy of Jesus Christ he had 
not been recognized, and they never met again." 
Many hermits received their parents or brothers and 
sisters with their eyes shut. When the father of 
Simeon Stylites died, his widowed mother prayed for 
entrance into her son's cell. For three days and 
nights she stood without, and then the blessed 
Simeon prayed the Lord for her, and she immedi- 
ately gave up the ghost. 

These as well as numerous other stories of a sim- 



398 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

ilar character that might be quoted illustrate the 
hardening influence of solitude. Instead of cher- 
ishing a love of kindred, as a gift of heaven and a 
spring of virtue, the monk spurned it and trampled 
it beneath his feet as an obstacle to his spiritual pro- 
gress. " The monks," says Milman, " seem almost 
unconscious of the softening, humanizing effect of 
the natural affections, the beauty of parental tender- 
ness and filial love." 

l!he Monks as Missionaries 

The conversion of the barbarians was an indis- 
pensable condition of modern civilization. Every 
step forward had to be taken in the face of barbaric 
ignorance and cruelty. In this stupendous under- 
taking the monks led the way, displaying in their 
labors remarkable generalship and undaunted cour- 
age. Whatever may be thought of later monaj 
cism, the Benedictine monks are entitled to t- - 
lasting gratitude of mankind for their splendid s . 
vices in reducing barbaric Europe to some sort 
order and civilization. But again the mixture 
good and evil is strangely illustrated. It see-: - 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 39c 

impossible to accord the monks unqualified praise 
The potency of the evil tendencies within theii 
system vitiated every noble achievement. Theii 
methods and practical ideals were so at variance with 
the true order of nature that every commendable 
victory involved a corresponding obstacle to rea] 
social and religious progress. The justice of these 
observations will be more apparent as this inquiry 
proceeds. 

Monasticism and Civic Duties 

The withdrawal of a considerable number of men 
of character and talent from the exercise of civic 
duties is injurious to the state. The burdens upon 
those who remain become heavier, while society is 
deprived of the moral influence of those who forsake 
their civic responsibilities. When the monk, from 
the outside as it were, attempted to exert an influence 
for good, he largely failed. His ideals of life were 
not formulated in a real world, but in an artificial 
antisocial environment. He was unable to appre- 
ciate the political needs of men. He could not 
enter sympathetically into their serious employments 



400 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

or innocent delights. Controlled by superstition, 
and exalting a servile obedience to human authority, 
he became a very unsafe guide in political affairs. 
He could not consistently labor for secular progress, 
because he had forsaken a world in which secular 
interests were prominent. 

It may be true that in the early days of monasti- 
cism the monks pursued the proper course in refus- 
ing to become Roman patriots. No human power 
could have averted the ruin which overtook that 
corrupt world. Perhaps their non-combatant atti- 
tude gave them more influence with the conquerors 
of Rome, who were to become the founders of 
modern nations. 

In later years, the abbots of the principal monas- 
teries occupied seats in the legislative assemblies of 
Germany, Hungary, Spain, England, Italy, and 
France. In many instances they stood between the 
violence of the nobles and the unprotected vassal. 
Political monks, inspired by a natural breadth of 
vision and a love of humanity, secured the passage 
of wise and humane regulations. Palgrave says : 
" The mitre has resisted many blows which would 
have broken the helmet, and the crosier has kept 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 401 

ore foes in awe than the lance. It is, then, to these 

•elates that we chiefly owe the maintenance of the 
form and spirit of free government, secured to us, 
not by force, but by law ; and the altar has thus 
been the corner-stone of our ancient constitution." 

Although there is much truth in the foregoing 
observation, yet on the other hand, when the influ- 
ence of the monastic ideal upon civilization is 
studied in its deeper aspects, it cannot be justly 
maintained that the final effects of monasticism min- 
ister to the development of a normal civilization. 
Industrial, mental and moral progress depend upon 
a certain breadth of mind and energy of soul. 
Asceticism saps the vitality of human nature and 
confines the activity of the mind within artificial 
limits. " Hence the dreary, sterile torpor," says 
Lecky, " that characterized those ages in which the 
ascetic principle has been supreme, while the civiliza- 
tions which have attained the highest perfection have 
been those of ancient Greece and modern Europe, 
which were most opposed to it." 

The monks did not hesitate to become embroiled 

in military quarrels, or to incite the fiercer passions 

of men when it suited their purpose. Their oppo- 
26 



402 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

sition to kings and princes was often not based on a 
love of popular freedom, but on an indisposition to 
share power with secular rulers. The legislative 
enactments against heretics, many of which they 
inspired, clearly show that they neither desired nor 
tolerated liberty of speech or conduct. They were 
the Almighty's vicars on earth, before whom it was 
the duty of king and subject to bow down. Vaughan 
writes of the period just prior to the Reformation : 
" The great want was freedom from ecclesiastical 
domination ; and from the feeling of the hour, 
scarcely any price would be deemed too great to be 
paid for that object." The history of modern 
Jesuitism, against which the legislation of almost 
every civilized nation has been directed, affords 
abundant testimony to the inherent hostility of the 
monastic system, even in its modified modern form, 
to every species of government which in any way 
guarantees freedom of thought to its people. This 
stern fact confronts the student, however much he 
may be inclined to yield homage to the early monks. 
It must be held in mind when one reads this pleasing 
sentence from Macaulay : " Surely a system which, 
however deformed by superstition, introduced strong 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 403 

moral restraints into communities previously gov- 
erned only by vigor of muscle and by audacity of 
spirit, a system which taught the fiercest and might- 
iest ruler that he was, like his meanest bondman, a 
responsible being, might have seemed to deserve a 
more respectful mention from philosophers and phi- 
lanthropists." 

The general effect of monasticism on the state is, 
therefore, not to be determined by fixing the gaze 
on any one century of its history, or by holding up 
some humane and patriotic monk as a representative 
product of the system. 

^he Agricultural Services of the Monks 

Europe must ever be indebted to Benedict and 
his immediate followers for their services in reclaim- 
ing waste lands, and in removing the stigma which a 
corrupt civilization had placed upon labor. Benedict 
came before the world saying : " No person is ever 
more usefully employed than when working with his 
hands or following the plough, providing food for 
the use of man." Care was taken that councils 
should not be called when ploughing was to be done 



404 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

or wheat to be threshed. Benedict bent himself to 
the task of teaching the rich and the proud, the 
poor and the lazy the alphabet of prosperity and 
happiness. Agriculture was at its lowest ebb. 
Marshes covered once fertile fields, and the men 
who should have tilled the land spurned the plough 
as degrading, or were too indolent to undertake the 
tasks of the farm. The monks left their cells and 
their prayers to dig ditches and plough fields. The 
effect was magical. Men once more turned back to a 
noble but despised industry. Peace and plenty 
supplanted war and poverty. ''The Benedictines," 
says Guizot, " have been the great clearers of land 
in Europe. A colony, a little swarm of monks, 
settled in places nearly uncultivated, often in the 
midst of a pagan population — in Germany, for 
example, or in Brittany ; there, at once missionaries 
and laborers, they accomplish their double service, 
through peril and fatigue." 

It is to be regretted that history throws a shadow 
across this pleasing scene. When labor came to be 
recognized as honorable and useful, along came the 
begging friars, creating, both by precept and example, 
a prejudice against labor and wealth. Rags and lazi- 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 405 

ness came to be associated with holiness, and a 
beggar monk was held up as an ideal and sacred 
personage. " The spirit that makes men devote 
themselves in vast numbers," says Lecky, " to a 
monotonous life of asceticism and poverty is so 
essentially opposed to the spirit that creates the 
energy and enthusiasm of industry, that their con- 
tinued coexistence may be regarded as impossible." 
But such a fatal mistake could not long captivate 
the mind, or cause men to forget Benedict and his 
industrial ideal. The blessings of wealth rightly 
administered, and the dignity of labor without 
which wealth is impossible, came to be recognized 
as necessary factors in the true progress of man. 

T!he Monks and Secular Learning 

For many centuries, as has been previously shown, 
the monks were the schoolmasters of Europe. They 
also preserved the manuscripts of the classics, pro- 
duced numerous theological works, transmitted 
many pious traditions, and wrote some interesting 
and some worthless chronicles. They laid the foun- 
dations of several great universities, including those 



4o6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. For these, and 
other valuable services, the monks merit the praise 
of posterity. It is, however, too much to affirm, as 
Montalembert does, that "without the monks, we 
should have been as ignorant of our history as chil- 
dren." It is altogether improbable that the human 
mind would have been unproductive in the field of 
historical writing had monasticism not existed during 
the middle ages. While, also, the monks should be 
thanked for preserving the classics, it should not be 
supposed that all knowledge of Latin and Greek 
literature would have perished but for them. 

It is surprising that the literary men of the 
medieval period should have written so little of 
interest to the modern mind, or that helps us to an 
understanding of the momentous events amid which 
they lived. Unfortunately the monkish mind was 
concentrated upon a theology, the premises of which 
have been largely set aside by modern science. 
Their writings are so permeated by grotesque super- 
stitions that they are practically worthless to-day. 
Their hostility to secular affairs blinded them to 
the tremendous significance of the mighty political 
and social movements of the age. 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 407 

It is undeniable that the monks never encouraged 
a love of secular learning. They did not try to 
impart a love of the classics which they preserved. \ 
The spirit of monasticism was ever at war with true \ 
intellectual progress. The monks imprisoned Roger 
Bacon fourteen years, and tried to blast his fair name 
by calling him a magician, merely because he stepped 
beyond the narrow limits of monkish inquiry. Many 
suffered indignities, privations or death for question- 
ing tradition or for conducting scientific researches. 

So while it is true that the monks rendered many 
services to the cause of education, it is also true that 
their monastic theories tended to narrow the scope 
of intellectual activity. " This," says Guizot, " is 
the foundation of their instruction ; all was turned 
into commentary of the Scriptures, historical, philo- 
sophical, allegorical, moral commentary. They 
desired only to form priests ; all studies, whatsoever 
their nature, were directed to this result.** There 
was no disinterested love of learning ; no desire to 
become acquainted with God*s world. In fact, the 
old hostility to everything natural characterizes 
all monastic history. Europe did not enter upon 
that broad and noble intellectual development 



4o8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

which is the glory of our era, until the right arm 
of monasticism was struck down, the dread of 
heresy banished from the human mind, and secular 
learning welcomed as a legitimate and elevated field 
for mental activity. 

Hamilton W. Mabie, in his delightful essay on 
" Some Old Scholars," describes this step from the 
gloom of the cloister to the light of God*s world : 
" Petrarch really escaped from a sepulcher when he 
stepped out of the cloister of medievalism, with its 
crucifix, its pictures of unhealthy saints, its cords of 
self-flagellation, and found the heavens clear, beauti- 
ful, and well worth living under, and the world full 
of good things which one might desire and yet not 
be given over to evil. He ventured to look at life 
for himself and found it full of wonderful dignity 
and power. He opened his Virgil, brushed aside 
the cobwebs which monkish brains had spun over 
the beautiful lines, and met the old poet as one man 
meets another ; and lo ! there arose before him a 
new, untrodden and wholly human world, free from 
priestcraft and pedantry, near to nature and unspeak- 
ably alluring and satisfying.'* 

The Dominicans and Jesuits set their faces like 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 409 

flint against all education tending to liberalize the 
mind. Here is a passage from a document pub- 
lished by the Jesuits at their first centenary : " It 
is undeniable that we have undertaken a great and 
uninterrupted war in the interests of the Catholic 
church against heresy. Heresy need never hope 
that the society will make terms with it, or remain 
quiescent. . . . No peace need be expected, for 
the seed of hatred is born within us. What Hamil- 
car was to Hannibal, Ignatius is to us. At his insti- 
gation, we have sworn upon the altars eternal war." 
When this proclamation is read in the light of his- 
tory, its meaning stands forth with startling clearness. 
Almost every truth in science and philosophy, no 
matter how valuable it was destined to become as an 
agent in enhancing the well-being of the race, has had 
to wear the stigma of heresy. 

It is an interesting speculation to imagine what 
the intellectual development of Europe would have 
been, had secular learning been commended by the 
monks, and the common people encouraged to exer- 
cise their minds without fear of excommunication or 
death. It is sad to reflect how many great thoughts 
must have perished still-born in the student's cloister 



4IO MONKS and MONASTERIES 

cell, and to picture the silent grief with which many 
a brilliant soul must have repressed his eager 
imagination. 

T^he Charity of the Monks 

In the eleventh century, a monk named ThiefFroy 
wrote the following : "It matters little that our 
churches rise to heaven, that the capitals of their 
pillars are sculptured and gilded, that our parchment 
is tinted purple, that gold is melted to form the 
letters of our manuscripts, and that their bindings 
are set with precious stones, if we have little or no 
care for the members of Christ, and if Christ him- 
self lies naked and dying before our doors." This 
spirit, so charmingly expressed, was never quite 
absent from the monkish orders. The monasteries 
were asylums for the hungry during famines, and 
the sick during plagues. They served as hotels 
where the traveler found a cordial welcome, comfort- 
able shelter and plain food. If he needed medical 
aid, his wants were supplied. During the black 
plague, while many monks fled with the multitude, 
others stayed at their posts and were to be found 



I 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 411 

daily in the homes of the stricken, ministering to 
their bodily and spiritual needs. Many of them 
perished in their heroic and self-sacrificing labors. 

Alms-giving was universally enjoined as a sure 
passport to heaven. The most glittering rewards 
were held out to those who enriched the monks with 
legacies to be used in relief of the poor. It was, 
no doubt, the unselfish activities of the monks that 
caused them to be held in such high esteem ; the 
result was their coffers were filled with more gold than 
they could easily give away. Thus abuses grew up. 
Bernard said : " Piety gave birth to wealth, and 
the daughter devoured the mother." Jacob of 
Vitry complained that money, " by various and 
deceptive tricks," was exacted from the people by 
the monks, most of which adhered " to their 
unfaithful fingers." While Lecky eloquently praises 
the monks for their beautiful deeds of charity, " fol- 
lowing all the windings of the poor man's grief," 
still he condones in the strongest terms the action 
of Henry VIII. in transferring the monastic funds 
to his own treasury : " No misapplication of this 
property by private persons could produce as much 
evil as an unrestrained monasticism." 



412 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

It would be unjust, however, to censure the monks 
for not recognizing the evil social effects of indis- 
criminate alms-giving. While their system was 
imperfect, it was the only one possible in an age 
when the social sciences were unknown. It is diffi- 
cult, even to-day, to restrain that good-natured, but 
baneful, benevolence which takes no account of cir- 
cumstances and consequences, and often fosters the 
growth of pauperism. The monks kept alive that 
sweet spirit of philanthropy which is so essential to 
all the higher forms of civilization. It is easier to 
discover the proper methods for the exercise of gen- 
erous sentiments, than to create those feelings or to 
arouse them when dormant. 

Monasticism and Religion 

No doctrine in theology, or practice of religion, 
has been free from monastic influences. An ade- 
quate treatment of this theme would require volumes 
instead of paragraphs. A few points, however, may 
be touched upon by way of suggestion to those who 
may wish to pursue the subject further. 

The effect of the monastic ideal was to emphasize 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 413 

the sinfulness of man and his need of redemption. 
To get rid of sin — that is the problem of humanity. 
A quaint formula of monastic confession reads : " I 
confess all the sins of my body, of my flesh, of my 
bones and sinews, of my veins and cartilages, of my 
tongue and lips, of my ears, teeth and hair, of my 
marrow and any other part whatsoever, whether it 
be soft or hard, wet or dry." This emphasis on 
man's sinfulness and the need of redemption was 
sadly needed in Rome and all down the ages. "It 
was a protest," says Clarke, " against pleasure as the 
end of life. ... It proved the reality of the 
religious sentiment to a skeptical age. ... If 
this long period of self-torture has left us no other 
gain, let us value it as a proof that in man religious 
aspiration is innate, unconquerable, and able to 
triumph over all that the world hopes and over all 
that it fears." 

Thus the monks helped to keep alive the enthu- 
siasm of religion. There was a fervor, a devotion, 
a spirit of sacrifice, in the system, which acted as a 
corrective to the selfish materialism of the early and 
middle ages. Christian history furnishes many sad 
spectacles of brutality and licentiousness, of insolent 



414 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

pride and uncontrolled greed, masked in the garb! 
of religion. Monasticism, by its constant insistence! 
upon poverty and obedience, fostered a spirit of 
loyalty to Christ and the cross, which served as a 
protest, not only against the general laxity of morals, 
but also against the faithlessness of corrupt monks. 
Harnack says : "It was always monasticism that 
rescued the church when sinking, freed her when 
secularized, defended her when attacked. It warmed 
hearts that were growing cold, restrained unruly 
spirits, won back the people when alienated from 
the church." It may have been in harmony with 
divine plans, that religion was to have been kept 
alive and vigorous by excessive austerities, even as 
in later days it needed the stern and unyielding Pur- 
itan spirit, now regarded as too grim and severe, to 
cope successfully with the forces of tyranny and sin. 
If it be true, as some are inclined to believe, that 
this age is losing a definite consciousness of sin, that 
in the reaction from the asceticism of the monks 
the gloom of the Puritans we are in danger of m 
mizing the doctrine of personal accountability to G i . 
then we cannot afford to ignore the underlying ii ■ 
of monasticism. I n so far as monasticism contribi e i 



( 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 415 

to a normal consciousness of human freedom and 
personal guilt, and maintained a grip upon the con- 
science of the sinner, it has rendered the cause of true 
religion a genuine and permanent service. 

But the mistake of the monks was twofold. They 
exaggerated sin, and they employed unhealthy meth- 
ods to get rid of it. Excessive introspection, instead 
of exercising a purifying influence, tends to distort 
one's religious conceptions, and creates an unwhole- 
some type of piety. Man is a sinner, but he also 
has potential and actual goodness. The monks 
failed to define sin in accordance with facts. Many 
innocent pleasures and legitimate satisfactions were 
erroneously thought to be sinful. Honorable and 
useful aspirations that, under wise control, minister 
to man's highest development were selected for erad- 
ication. " Every instinct of human nature," says 
W. E. Channing, " has its destined purpose in life, 
and the perfect man is to be found in the propor- 
tionate cultivation of each element of his character, 
not in the exaggerated development of those faculties 
which are deemed primarily good, nor in the repress- 
ion of those which are evil only when their promi- 
nence destroys the balance of the whole.'* 



4i6 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

But the methods employed by the monks to get 
rid of sin afford another illustration of the fact that 
noble sentiments and holy aspirations need to be 
wisely directed. It is not enough for a mother to \ 
love her child ; she must know how to give that love 
proper expression. In her attempt to guide and 
train her loved one she may fatally mislead him. 
The modern emphasis upon method deserves wider 
recognition than it has received. 

The applause of the church that sounded so sweet 
in the ears of the monk, as he laid the stripes upon 
his body, proclaims the high esteem in which 
penance was held. But the monk cruelly deceived 
himself. His self-inflicted tortures developed 
within his soul an unnatural piety, "a piety," says 
White, ''that became visionary and introspective, 
a theology of black clouds and lightning and 
thunder, a superstitious religion based on dreams 
and saint's bones." True penitence consists in 
high and holy purposes, in pure and unselfish 
living, arid not in disfigurements and in misery. 
Dreariness and fear are not the proper manifestations 
of that perfect love which casteth out fear. 

The influence of monasticism upon the doctrine 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 417 

of atonement for sin was, in many respects, prejudi- 
cial to the best interests of religion. The monks 
are largely responsible for the theory that sin can be 
atoned for by pecuniary gifts. It may be said that 
they did not ignore true feelings of repentance, of 
which the gold was merely a tangible expression, but 
the notion widely prevailed that the prayers of the 
monks, purchased by temporal gifts, secured the for- 
giveness of the transgressor. The worship of saints, 
pilgrimages to shrines, and reverence for bones and 
other relics, were assiduously encouraged. 

Thus the monkish conception of salvation and 
of the means by which it is to be obtained were at 
variance with any reasonable interpretation of the 
Scriptures and the dictates of human reason. " It 
measured virtue," says Schaff, ^^by the quantity of 
outward exercises, instead of the quality of the 
inward disposition, and disseminated self-righteous- 
ness and an anxious, legal, and mechanical religion."* 

The doctrine of future punishment reached its 
most repulsive and abnormal developments in the 
hands of the monks. A vast literature was pro- 
duced by them, portraying, with vivid minuteness, 

* Appendix, Note K. 
27 



4i8 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

the pangs of hell. Volcanoes were said to be i 
portals of the lower world, that heaved and sigl: 
as human souls were plunged into the awful depths. 
God was held up as a fearful judge, and the saving 
mercy of Christ himself paled before the rescuing 
power of his mother. These fearful caricatures of 
God, these detailed, revolting descriptions of pain 
and anguish, could not but have a hardening effect 
upon the minds of men. " To those," says Lecky, 
" v/ho do not regard these teachings as true, it must 
appear without exception, the most odious in the 
religious history of the world, subversive of the 
very foundations of Christianity." 

Finally, the greatest error of monastic teaching 
was in its false and baneful distinction between the 
secular and the religious. Unquestionably the 
Christian ideal is founded on some form of world- 
renunciation. The teachings and example of Jesus, 
the lives of the Apostles, and the characters of the 
early Christians, exhibit in varying phases the ideal 
of self-crucifixion. The doctrine of the cross, with 
all that it signifies, is the most powerful force in 
the spread of Christianity. The spiritual nature of 
man needs to be trained and disciplined. But does 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 419 

this truth lead the Christian to the monastic method ? 
Was the self-renunciation of Jesus like that of the 
ascetics, with their ecstasies and self-punishments ? 
Is God more pleased with the recluse who turns 
from a needy world to shut himself up to prayer 
and meditation, than He is with him who cultivates 
holy emotions and heavenly aspirations, while pur- 
suing some honorable and useful calling? The 
answer to these questions discloses the chief fallacy 
in the monastic ideal, the effect of which was the 
creation of an artificial piety. There is no special 
virtue in silence, celibacy, and abstinence from the 
enjoyment of God's gifts to mankind. 

The crying need of Christianity to-day is a willing- 
ness on the part of Christ's followers to live for 
others instead of self. Men and women are needed 
who, like many of the monks and nuns, will identify 
themselves with the toiling multitudes, and who will 
forego the pleasures of the world and the prospects 
of material gain or social preferment, for the sake 
of ministering to a needy humanity. The essence 
of Christianity is a love to God and man that 
expresses itself in terms of social service and self- 
sacrifice. Monasticism helped to preserve that noble 



420 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

essence of all true religion. But a revival of the 
apostolic spirit in these times would not mean a 
triumph for monasticism. Stripped of its rigid 
vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, monasti- 
cism is dead. 

The spirit of social service, the insistence upon \ 
soul-purity, and the craving for participation in the 
divine nature, are the fruits of Christianity, not of 
monasticism, which merely sought to carry out the 
Christian ideal. But it is not necessary, in order to 
realize this ideal, to wage war on human nature. 
True Christianity is perfectly compatible with wealth, 
health and social joys. The realms of industry, 
politics and home-life are a part of God*s world. A 
religious ideal based on a distorted view of social 
life, that involves a renunciation of human joy and 
the extinction of natural desires, and that prohibits 
the free exercise of beneficent faculties, as conditions 
of its realization, can never establish its right to per- 
manent and universal dominion. The faithful dis- 
charge of unromantic, secular duties, the keeping of 
one's heart pure in the midst of temptation, and the 
unheralded altruism of private life, must ever be as 
welcome in the sight of God as the prayers of 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 421 

the recluse, who scorns the world of secular affairs. 
True religion, the highest religion, is possible 
beyond the walls of churches and convents. The 
so-called secular employments of business and poli- 
tics, of home and school, may be conducted in a 
spirit of lofty consecration to the Eternal, and so 
carried on, may, in their way, minister to the highest 
welfare of humanity. The old distinction, therefore, 
between the secular and the sacred is pernicious and 
false. There are some other sacred things besides 
monasteries and prayers. Human life itself is holy ; 
so are the commonplace duties of the untitled house- 
hold and factory saints. 

" God is in all that liberates and lifts. 
In all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles." 

Modern monasticism has forsaken the column of 
St. Simeon Stylites and the rags of St. Francis. It 
has given up the ancient and fantastic feats of ascet- 
icism, and the spiritual extravagances of the early 
monks. The old monasticism never could have 
arisen under a religious system controlled by natural 
and healthful spiritual ideas. It has no attractions 
for minds unclouded by superstition. It has lost 



422 MONKS and MONASTERIES 

its hold upon the modern man because the ancient 
ideas of God and his world, upon which it thrived, 
have passed away. 

Such are some of the effects of the monastic 
institution. Its history is at once a warning and an 
inspiration. Its dreamy asceticism, its gloomy cells, 
are gone. Its unworldly motives, its stern alle- 
giance to duty, its protest against self-indulgence, 
its courage and sincerity, will ever constitute the 
potent energy of true religion. Its ministrations to 
the broken-hearted, and its loving care of the poor, 
must ever remain as a shining example of practical 
Christianity. In the simplicity of the monk's 
life, in the idea of " brotherhood," in the com- 
mon life for common ends, a Christian democracy 
will always find food for reflection. As the 
social experiments of modern times reveal the hid- 
den laws of social and religious progress, it will be 
found that in spite of its glaring deficiencies, mon- 
asticism was a magnificent attempt to realize the 
ideal of Christ in individual and social life. As such 
it merits neither ridicule nor obloquy. It was a 
heroic struggle with inveterate ignorance and sin, the 



EFFECTS of MONASTICISM 423 

history of which flashes many a welcome light upon 
the problems of modern democracy and religion. 

Monastic forms and vows may pass away with 
other systems that will have their day, but its fervor 
of faith, and its warfare against human passion and 
human greed, its child-like love of the heavenly 
kingdom will never die. The revolt against its 
superstitions and excesses is justifiable only in a 
society that seeks to actualize its underlying religious 
ideal of personal purity and social service. 



APPEND IX 



NOTE A 

The derivation and meaning of a few monastic terms may be of 
interest to the reader. 

"^ Abbot, from d^/3a, literally, father. A title originally given to 
any monk, but afterwards restricted to the head or superior of a mon- 
astery. 

^ Anchoret, anchorite, from the Greek, dvaxf^prjT'i^s, a recluse, literally, 
one retired. In the classification of religious ascetics, the anchorets 
were those who were most excessive in their austerities, not only 
choosing solitude but subjecting themselves to the greatest privations. 

•^Ascetic, da-KrjT-qs, one who exercises, an athlete. The term was 
first applied to those practicing self-denial for athletic purposes. In its 
ecclesiastical sense, it denotes those who seek holiness through self- 
mortification. 

^ Canon Regular. About A. D. 755, Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, 
gave a cloister-life law to his clergy, who came to be called canons, 
from Kavit)v, rule. The canons were originally priests living in a com- 
munity like monks, and acting as assistants to the bishops. They 
gradually formed separate and independent bodies. Benedict XII. 
(1399) tried to secure a general adoption of the rule of Augustine for 
these canons, which gave rise to the distinction between canons regular 
(i. e., those who follow that rule), and canons secular (those who do 
not). 

^ Cenobite, from the Greek, /cotras, common, and /3tos, life ; applied 
to those living in monasteries. 

^ Clerks Regular, This is a title given to certain religious orders 
founded in the sixteenth century. The principal societies are : the 
Theatines, founded by Cajetan of Thiene, subsequently Pope Paul 

425 



426 APPENDIX 

IV. ; and Priests of the Oratory, instituted by Philip Neri, of Florence. 
These two orders have been held in high repute, numbering among 
their members many men of rank and intellect. 

Cloister, from the Latin, Claustray that which closes or shuts, an 
inclosure ; hence, a place of religious retirement, a monastery. 

Hermit, or eremite, from the Greek, iprjfxos, desolate, solitary. 
One who dwells alone apart from society, or with but few companions. 
Not used of those who dwell in cloisters. 

^' Monastery, comes from the same source as monk. Commonly 
applied to a house used exclusively by monks. The term, however, 
strictly includes the abbey, the priory, the nunnery, the friary, and in 
this broad sense is synonymous with convent, which is from the Latin, 
coti'venirey to meet together. 

■^ Monk, from the Greek, /x6vos, alone, single. Originally, a man 
who retired from the world for religious meditation. In later use, a 
member of a community. It is used indiscriminately to denote all 
persons in monastic orders, in or out of the monasteries. 

Nun, from nouna^ i. e., chaste, holy. <*The word is probably of 
Coptic origin^ and occurs as early as in Jerome." (Schaff). 
*^ Regulars. Until the tenth century it was not customary to regard 
the monks as a part of the clerical order. Before that time they were 
known as religiosi or regulares. Afterwards a distinction was made 
between parish priests, or secular clergy, and the monks, or regular 
clergy. 

For more detailed information on these and other monastic words, 
see The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, and McClintock and 
Strong's Encyclopedia. 



NOTE B 

The Pythagoreans are likened to the Jesuits probably on account 
of their submission to Pythagoras as Master, their love of learning and 
their austerities. Like the Jesuits, the Pythagorean league entangled 
itself with politics and became the object of hatred and violence. Its 



APPENDIX 427 

meeting-houses were everywhere sacked and burned. As a philo- 
sophical school Pythagoreanism became extinct about the middle of 
the fourth century. 

NOTE C 

The Encyclopaedia Brittanica divides the monastic institutions into 
five classes : 

I. Monks. 2. Canons Regular. 3. Military Orders. 4. Friars. 
5. Clerks Regular. All of these have communities of women, either 
actually affiliated to them, or formed on similar lines. 

Saint Benedict distinguishes four sorts of monks: i. Coenobites, 
living under an abbot in a monastery, t. Anchorites, who retire into 
the desert. 3. Sarabaites, dwelling two or three in the same cell. 4. 
GyrovagI, who wander from monastery to monastery. The last two 
kinds he condemns. The Gyrovagi or wandering monks were the 
pest of convents and the disgrace of monasticism. They evaded all 
responsibilities and spent their time tramping from place to place, liv- 
ing like parasites, and spreading vice and disorder wherever they went. 

There were really four distinct stages in the development of the 
monastic institution : 

1. Asceticism. Clergy and laymen practiced various forms of self- 
denial without becoming actual monks. 

2. The hermit life, which was asceticism pushed to an external 
separation from the world. Here are to be found anchorites, and stylites 
or pillar-saints. 

3. Coenobitism, or monastic life proper, consisting of associations of 
monks under one roof, and ruled by an abbot. 

4. Monastic orders, or unions of cloisters, the various abbots being 
under the authority of one supreme head, who was, at first, generally 
the founder of the brotherhood. 

Under this last division are to be classed the Mendicant Friars, the 
Military Monks, the Jesuits and other modern organizations. The 
members of these orders commenced their monastic life in monasteries, 
and were therefore coenobites, but many of them passed out of the 



428 APPENDIX 

cloister to become teachers, preachers or missionary workers in various 
fields. 

NOTE D 

Matins. One of the canonical hours appointed in the early church, 
and still observed in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in 
monastic orders. It properly begins at midnight. The name is also 
applied to the service itself, which includes the Lord's Prayer, the 
Angelic Salutation, the Creed and several psalms. 

Lauds, a religious service in connection with matins j so called from 
the reiterated ascriptions of praise to God in the psalms. 

Prime. The first hour or period of the day ; follows after matins 
and lauds j originally intended to be said at the first hour after sunrise. 

Tierce, terce. The third hour j half-way between sunrise and noon. 

Sext. The sixth hour, originally and properly said at midday. 

None, noon. The ninth hour from sunrise, or the middle hour 
between midday and sunset — that is, about 3 o'clock. 

Vespers, the next to the last of the canonical hours — the even-song. 

Compline. The last of the seven canonical hours, originally said 
after the evening meal and before retiring to sleep, but in later medie- 
val and modern usage following immediately on vespers. 

B. V. M. — Blessed Virgin Mary. 

y 

NOTE E ^ 

The literary and educational services of the monks are described in 
many histories, but the reader will find the best treatment of this 
subject in the scholarly yet popular work of George Haven Putnam, ' 
*< Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages," to which we 
are largely indebted for the facts given in this volume. 

NOTE F 

T) 

In many interesting particulars St. Francis may be compared with 
General Booth of the Salvation Army. In their intense religious 
fervor, in their insistence upon obedience, humility, and self-denial, in 



APPENDIX 429 

their services for the welfare of the poor, in their love of the " submerged 
tenth," they are alike. True, there are no monkish vows in the Sal- 
vation Army and its doctrines bear a general resemblance to those of 
other Protestant communions, but like the old Franciscan order, it is 
dominated by a powerful missionary spirit, and its members are 
actuated by an unsurpassed devotion to the common people. In the 
autocratic, military features of the Army, it more nearly approaches 
the ideal of Loyola. It is quite possible that the differences between 
Francis and Booth are due more to the altered historical environment 
than to any radical diversities in the characters of the two men. 

NOTE G / 

The quotations from Father Sherman are taken from an address 
delivered by him in Central Music Hall, Chicago, Illinois, on Mon- 
day, February 5, 1894, in which he extolled the virtues of Loyola 
and defended the aims and character of the Society of Jesus. 

A 
NOTE H 

Those who may wish to study the casuistry of the Jesuits, as it 
appears in their own works, are referred to two of the most important 
and comparatively late authorities: Liguori's *^ Theologia Moralis,'"' 
and Gury's *' Compendium Theologice Moralis'"'' and ** Casus Con- 
scientite.'"'' Gury was Professor of Moral Theology in the College 
Romain, the Jesuits' College in Rome. His works have passed 
through several editions. They were translated from the Latin into 
French by Paul Bert, member of the Chamber of Deputies. An 
English translation of the French rendering was published by B. F. 
Bradbury, of Boston, Massachusetts. The reader is also referred to 
Pascal's *' Provincial Letters "and to Migne's ^^ Dictionnaire de cas 
de Conscience.'''' 

NOTE I 

The student may profitably study the life and teachings of Wyclif 
in their bearing upon the destruction of the monasteries. Wyclif was 



430 APPENDIX 

designated as the "Gospel Doctor" because he maintained that "the 
law of Jesus Christ infinitely exceeds all other laws." He held to the 
right of private judgment in the interpretation of Scripture, and denied 
the infallibility claimed by the pontiffs. He opposed pilgrimages, 
held loosely to image-worship and rejected the system of tithing as it 
was then carried on. Wyclif was also a persistent and public foe of 
the mendicant friars. The views of this eminent reformer were 
courageously advocated by his followers, and for nearly two genera- 
tions they continued to agitate the English people. It is easy to 
understand, therefore, how Wyclif 's opinions assisted in preparing the 
nation for the Reformation of the sixteenth century, although it 
seemed that Lollardy had been everywhere crushed by persecution. 
The Lollards condemned, among other things, pilgrimages to the 
tombs of the saints, papal authority and the mass. Their revolt 
against Rome led in some instances to grave excesses. 

N O T E J k 

In France, the religious houses suppressed by the laws of Feb- 
ruary 13, 1790, and August 18, 1792, amounted (without reckoning 
various minor establishments) to 820 abbeys of men and 255 of 
women, with aggregate revenues of 95,000,000 livres. 

The Thirty Years' War in Germany wrought much mischief to 
the monasteries. On the death of Maria Theresa, in 1780, Joseph 
II., her son, dissolved the Mendicant Orders and suppressed the greater 
number of monasteries and convents in his dominions. 

Although Pope Alexander VII. secured the suppression of many 
small cloisters in Italy, he was in favor of a still wider abolition on 
account of the superfluity of religious institutes, and the general 
degeneration of the monks. Various minor suppressions had taken 
place in Italy, but it was not until the unification of the kingdom that 
the religious houses were declared national property. The total num- 
ber of monasteries suppressed in Italy, down to 1882, was 2,255, 
involving an enormous displacement of property and dispersion of 
inmates. 



APPENDIX 431 

The fall of the religious houses in Spain dates fronn the law of June 
21, 1835, which suppressed nine hundred monasteries at a blow. The 
remainder were dissolved on October nth, in the same year. 

No European country had so many religious houses in proportion to 
its population and area as Portugal. In 1834 the number suppressed 
exceeded five hundred. 

NOTE K ^' 

The criticism of SchaiF is just in its estimate of the general influ- 
ence of the monastic ideal, but there were individual monks whose 
views of sin and salvation were singularly pure and elevating. Saint 
Hugh, of Lincoln, said to several men of the world who were praising 
the lives of the Carthusian monks : "Do not imagine that the king- 
dom of Heaven is only for monks and hermits. When God will 
judge each one of us, he will not reproach the lost for not having been 
monks or solitaries, but for not having been true Christians. Now, to 
be a true Christian, three things are necessary j and if one of these 
three things is wanting to us, we are Christians only in name, and 
our sentence will be all the more severe, the more we have made pro- 
fession of perfection. The three things are : Charity in the hearty 
truth on the lipsy and purity of life \ if we are wanting in these, we are 
unworthy of the name of Christian."" 

A 

NOTE L 

An attentive reader of this volume will have little difficulty in 
understanding the essential features of the Philippine friar problem. 
There is really nothing new in the conflict between the Filipinos and 
the Spanish monks, except the parties to the strife. It is the same 
old play with new actors and different scenery. 

The monastic question has been a political issue many times in the 
history of England and the Continent, but it is new to Americans. 
Priests they understand, but monks are strangers to them. Hence, 
when the problem respecting the removal of the friars from the Phil- 
ippine Islands arose, the majority of the people of this country were 



432 APPENDIX 

completely in the dark, not only as to the monastic conditions in the 
islands, but as to the whole history of monastic orders. 

This book has acquainted the reader with a few fundamental facts 
and principles which throw light on the situation in the Philippines. 

Firsty It has been clearly demonstrated that there never was an 
attack upon monastic orders, by any people or government, which 
was not pronounced to be harsh, unjust, and inspired by greed and 
religious bigotry. No matter what the charge against the monks in 
general, or any particular order, may have been there were always 
those of high repute who defended the monks. Absolute unanimity 
of opinion respecting the character and utility of the monks there has 
never been. It is not strange, therefore, that the Spanish friars have 
defenders in America. 

Secondly^ It has also been shown that every order of monks has had 
its moral ups-and-downs. Not one of them has remained persist- 
ently devoted to the principles of its founder. Corruption, more or 
less grievous and widespread, has stained the annals of every monas- 
tic order known to history. 

Thirdly^ It never could be truthfully said at any time that all the 
orders, or all the religious houses in any order, were morally debased 
and a public nuisance. Indiscriminate abuse and wholesale condem- 
nation of the monks has never been warranted in any era of monastic 
history. 

Fourthly, Although there always have been, even in times of gen- 
eral decline, good and worthy monks, yet again and again have gov- 
ernments, and popes, been compelled, in the interests of the state, or 
of public morals, or of religion, to abolish monastic institutions. 
This has occurred so often, and subsequent events have so com- 
pletely justified the abolition, that it is useless to question the indubi- 
table fact that monastic orders can become a menace to public welfare, 
and deserve destruction. Even a loyal Roman Catholic must concur 
in this view or, else, take issue with many popes who have solemnly 
pronounced against the monks in various periods of ecclesiastical 
history. 



APPENDIX 433 

When these four points are conceded, and when the Philippine 
friar problem is studied in the light of these considerations, one has 
gone a long way toward a thorough understanding of the situation in 
the Philippines. He is not disturbed by the apparently conflicting 
testimony respecting the character of the Spanish friars ; and he is 
not quick to believe or to deny all he reads about them. Some have 
erred by assuming that the monk, being a religious person, professing 
extraordinary sanctity, could not be so bad as he is painted. Others 
have mistakenly assumed that the monk must be bad, because he is a 
monk. In each case, the problem in the Philippines has not been 
studied on its merits, but religious prejudices and predilections have led 
to a priori judgments. 

The Philippine Islands were discovered in 1521 by Fernando de 
Magallanes, or Magellan, and a few years later the Spaniards took 
possession of the whole group. In 1565, a band of monkish mis- 
sionaries, of the Order of St. Augustine, established the monastic 
system in the islands. They were followed by the Franciscans, in 
1577 J the Jesuits, in 1581 ; the Dominicans, in 1587 j and the Recol- 
etos, in 1606. Other prominent orders settled in the islands in the 
last century, — the Paulists, in 18625 the Capuchins, in 1886; the 
Benedictines, in 1895. 

According to the published statement of the Jesuits of Manila, the 
number of monks in the islands before the revolutionary movement 
of 1896 was as follows: 

Augustinians, 644 

Recoletos, 522 

Dominicans, 528 

Franciscans, 475 

Jesuits, 164 

Capuchins, 36 

Benedictines, 14 

Total, .... 2,383 

When the monks arrived at these islands in the sixteenth century, 
they found some of the people "wholly savage, cannibals j others 
28 



434 APPENDIX 

semi-barbarous } all of them pagans, idolaters, sunk in the densest 
darkness of superstition, slavery, and vice." To-day, barbarism has 
practically disappeared and slavery has been abolished, except in 
Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Palawan and the smaller islands adjacent to 
them, all of which are inhabited chiefly by Mohammedans and 
heathen tribes. 

The number of Roman Catholic adherents in the Philippines is 
estimated to be more than 6,500,000. 

In many respects the monks have displayed rare heroism and self- 
sacrifice in their missionary tours into the benighted interiors. They 
have built schools, hospitals, cathedrals, and monasteries. The 
many monkish martyrs to the cause of religion and social betterment 
in the Philippine Islands, and their noble devotion to their faith, 
explain why the Jesuits of Manila have exultingly exclaimed : " What 
a beautiful page for the Catholic church the history of the propaga- 
tion of Christianity in the Philippines presents ! What fruitfulness on 
the part of the church ! What glory for the missionaries ! What 
honor for Spain!" 

That is one picture. It has almost always been possible to paint 
such a picture of the monks. It is the one the out-and-out defenders 
of monasticism fondly dwell upon. They are proud of it. Those 
who would do justice to the monks cannot ignore these claims to 
excellence. A comparison between the type of civilization existing in 
the Philippines and that of our own country might lead one to dis- 
parage the labors of the monks. But the early character of the natives 
should not be overlooked. Furthermore, whether any other mission- 
aries could have created a purer and nobler form of civilization than 
is now to be found in the Philippines, is an idle inquiry. The fact 
abides that what progress has been made is due almost wholly to the 
labors of the friars. 

Turn now to the other picture, which also is characteristic of every 
period of monastic history, and which is the one the enemies of 
monasticism dwell upon to the exclusion of the fairer side of monas- 
tic life. 



APPENDIX 435 

The chief and most reliable source of information respecting the 
troubles arising from the presence of the friars in the islands is the 
report of the first Philippine Commission, appointed by President 
William McKinley, on January 20, 1899, to investigate affairs in the 
Philippine Islands. This report, transmitted to Congress, February 2, 
1900, has been published in four volumes by the Government. In 
these volumes w^ill be found an array of facts, supported by testimony 
of an unimpeachable character, all tending to show that the monks in 
the Philippines have declined in usefulness, and in many instances 
have become inordinately acquisitive, morally degenerate, and politi- 
cally offensive to the Filipinos. 

No intelligent person disputes the fact that under Spanish domina- 
tion the rights of the Filipinos were " shamefully invaded and ruth- 
lessly trampled upon." It is also equally susceptible of proof that 
the friars, all of them Spaniards, supported the Spaniards in their 
tyrannical rule over the people. Indeed so true is this that the hos- 
tility toward the friars on the part of the Filipinos is even more bit- 
ter than it is toward the Spanish civil rulers. It is the general opinion 
of the Filipinos that of the two the friars are more to be feared and 
hated. In consequence of the rebellion against Spain, most of the 
friars were compelled to flee from their estates to save their lives, so 
that at the close of the year 1900 only 472 remained in the islands. 
Many of them were slain or imprisoned. 

Frank S. Bourns, chief surgeon of the volunteer American army, 
in testifying before the Philippine Commission, was asked if, in his 
visits to various islands, he had discovered any antagonism to the 
friars. He replied that in every region he visited he found very 
marked antagonism, based upon the moral and financial abuses com- 
mitted by the monks. He also affirmed that the people considered 
themselves good Catholics, but they objected to the great power of 
the monastic orders, which power was grossly abused. 

Sefior Melliza testified before the Commission as follows: "The 
friar is the man who has tried to dominate the people, and the people 
have a great repugnance to the friars. One of the reasons that resist- 



436 APPENDIX 

ance to America was decided upon in the Philippine Islands was the 
fact that the friars' property was seen to be respected, and they 
remained here. Furthermore, the property of the friars is not really 
theirs. The properties that they have were properties given them by 
the people, not for the friars themselves, but for the welfare of the 
givers' souls, and for the purposes of benefit to the people and pur- 
poses of education and other benefits to the people." 

Seiior Rosario, a man of some importance in Luzon, testified as 
follows: "It is impossible to retain here the religious corporations 
as they existed before, for they cause a great problem — one state 
within another state. As happens in every nation in the world in 
which there is clerical domination, Rome has power over the religious 
corporations, and consequently intervenes in the affairs of the nation j 
and it came to pass in former times here that Rome had more power 
in the State than Spain, for there were religious corporations here that 
combined and were very strong, and Rome had really more power 
than Spain in the country. The proclamation of the Governor-Gen- 
eral speaks of the separation of Church and State, but this is not 
enough for the Philippine Islands. This idea, which is very well in 
free countries like the United States, is not enough for the Philippine 
Islands, which are very much governed by the religious corporations. 
If the friars remain here in the country their property must all be 
thoroughly scrutinized — their right to the property. If the property 
is returned to the friars an agrarian war will result j that is, such a 
war as we have now, a war of the agricultural classes against the 
property owners. If their property is taken away from them and they 
still remain here they will cause another war, for they have the pro- 
tection of Rome. When I speak of Rome I refer to the Vatican, 
the Papal power." 

When Senor Rosario was reminded by Professor Worcester, a 
member of the Commission, that there were many Catholics in 
America with the power of Rome behind them, and yet they pro- 
duced no war, he said : "The friar in the Philippines is entirely dif- 
ferent from the friar in Europe or America. . . . The friar here is not 



APPENDIX 437 

a religious person. He is not a Catholic who preaches religion.'* 
Later on, Senor Rosario pronounced the friar to be " a factor in public 
life'' and "capable of disturbing the public order." 

Sefior Jose Luis de Luzuriaga, president of the Congress of the 
island of Negros, when asked by the Commissioners what was the 
feeling of the people toward the friars in Negros, replied: *<It is com- 
pletely hostile. They are the enemies of the friars. They do not 
wish to see a friar there. A great many people have been shot in 
Negros through the unjust and calumnious denunciation of the 
friars." Asked to specify some actions of the friars of which the 
people complained, Senor Luzuriaga said : "In the first place, they 
complain of the grasping spirit of the friars. The friars wish to be 
the civil authority and the military authority ; and they were com- 
plete owners of a man's body and soul. The friar is the personi- 
fication of autocracy, and has as his object the exploitation, spirit- 
ually and materially, of the native." 

Testimony of this character abounds in the second volume of the 
Commission's report. 

The conclusion of President Jacob Gould Schurman, who headed 
the Commission, who heard all the evidence, and has studied the 
problem in all its phases, is one which all fair-minded persons must 
accept : "The friars can never be happy or prosperous in their estates j 
the Filipinos will never be contented so long as they hold them. 
Common sense and justice alike prescribe the course to be adopted ; 
purchase by the government and sale in small holdings, preferably to 
the present tenants." 

When the Filipinos rebelled against Spain in 1896, a proclamation 
was extensively circulated stating the purposes of the revolt, some of 
which read as follows: "Expulsion of the friars and restitution to 
the townships of lands which the friars have appropriated, dividing 
the incumbencies held by them, as well as the episcopal sees, equally 
between peninsular and insular secular priests. . . . Spain must 
concede to us as she has to Cuba, parliamentary representation, 
freedom of the press, toleration of all religious sects, laws common 



438 APPENDIX 

with hers, and administrative and economic autonomy. . . . Abo- 
lition of the government authorities' power to banish citizens, as well 
as unjust measures against Filipinos ; legal equality for all persons, 
whether peninsular or insular, under the civil as well as under the 
penal code." 

From this proclamation, from the testimony of the witnesses before 
the Commission, and from various other sources of information, it is 
certainly clear that the Filipinos felt themselves to be tyrannically 
governed, and that they believed the monks were influential allies of 
this hated power. They did not wish to sever their relations with the 
Roman Catholic church j they simply sought the banishment of the 
friars. 

That this is a true view of the situation may be further seen from 
statements made by the monks themselves, — monks, by the way, who 
are not included among the hated land-holding friars of the interior. 
A paper prepared by the Jesuits of Manila is incorporated in the fourth 
volume of the Commission's report. After reviewing the history of 
monastic missions in the Philippine Islands, these Jesuits take up the 
subject of religious freedom, and say: *< Therefore, religion — and, 
consequently, morality — ^being so universal in the Philippines, would 
it be advisable to introduce liberty of religious worship in this coun- 
try ? If by freedom of religion is understood religious tolerance in 
fact, by virtue of which no one can be compelled to profess Catholi- 
cism, or be persecuted for not being a Catholic, but each individual 
may privately profess the religion which suits him best, then this 
liberty has always existed in the Philippines ; and no Filipino or for- 
eigner has ever been forced to embrace the Catholic religion. But if 
by liberty of religions is understood the granting to all religions — for 
example, the worship of Confucius, or of Mohammed — and to all 
the Protestant sects equal rights to open schools, erect churches, 
create parishes, have processions and public ceremonies, with the 
Catholic Church, we believe that it would not only not be advisable, 
but it would be a lamentable measure for any government which may 
rule the destinies of the Filipinos. . . . Two serious obstacles 



APPENDIX 439 

may oppose the rights of Catholicism in the Philippines. The first 
is the Americans who are now governing here, and the second is the 
Filipinos themselves. The Americans enjoy in America the most 
complete religious liberty. Why then, should they not enjoy the 
same liberty on moving to the Philippines? We answer that each 
citizen should conform to the laws of the country in which he lives. 
. . . The majority of the Philippine insurgents were addicted to 
Masonry. They had agreed a long time ago to work for the expul- 
sion of the friars, and drunken with the wine of liberty they asked 
for all liberties, including religious freedom.'"" 

When these are the sentiments of the Jesuit monks, who appear 
to escape much of the criticism directed against the land-holding 
friars of the interior regions, which latter are particularly offensive to 
the Filipinos, it is not difficult to grasp the situation. In the last 
analysis it is measurably clear that there is a profoundly interesting 
liberal movement going on in the Philippine Islands. The monks 
stand, not for American Roman Catholicism, but for the Roman 
Catholicism of the Middle Ages. Whatever these friars may have 
done, during the three-and-a-quarter centuries in which they have 
held sway in the islands, for the culture of the Filipinos, to-day, as a 
class, they stand for all that is hateful to liberty-loving souls. 

When the Government of the United States, acting upon the coun- 
sel of two Commissions, composed of liberally-educated and broad- 
minded men, requests the Vatican to move the Spanish monks from 
the Philippines, it simply asks the Vatican to acquiesce in what has 
already been accomplished. The monks have left. They could 
return only under armed protection, which practically would mean 
that the United States would have to force the Spanish monks upon 
the Filipinos at the point of the bayonet, a course which the genius 
of American institutions and the American ideal of religious liberty 
emphatically prohibits. 

As was said at the beginning of this note, it is the same old story 
of the mournful circle. The piety and sacrifices of the early monks 
gave them a strong grip upon the affections of the people. Then 



"W' "■•■- 



440 APPENDIX 

came lavish gifts for the benefit of the *« givers' souls," and to be 
used in the prosecution of the monks' noble work. But with wealth 
and power came vice and tyranny. Human nature is much the same 
the world over, and has always been. The friars could not stand 
where so many of their brethren in other lands have fallen. Pros- 
perity corrupted their morals and political power transformed them 
into agencies of oppression. 



\ 



THE END 



INDEX 



ABBEY 



Abbey, see Monastery. 

Abbot, meaning of word, 425 j 
as father of family of monks, 
143 J election of, 144; descrip- 
tion of installation of, 145 j 
wealth and political influence 
of, 147 j disorders among lay, 
179 J as a feudal lord, 373 ; in 
legislative assemblies, 400. 

Abelard opposed by Bernard, 196. 

Abraham, St., the hermit, 50 j 
quoted, 60. 

Abstinence, no virtue in false, 419. 

Accountability, personal, sense of 
maintained by monks, 414. 

Act of Succession, 298. 

Agriculture, monasteries centers 
of, 155; and the Cistercian 
monks, 192; fostered by monks, 
403. See Benedict, Order of 
St. 

Alaric the Goth sacks Rome, 103. 

Albans, St. , Abbey of, Morton on 
its vices, 338. 

Albertus Magnus, a Dominican, 
242. 

Albigensians, Hallam on doctrines 
of, 232; Hardwick on same, 

233 ; Dominic preaches against, 

234 J Dominic's part in crusade 
against, 235. 

44 



ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH 

Alcuin, on corruptions of monks, 
173 } education and, 167. 

Alexander IV., Pope, on the stig- 
mata of St. Francis, 22 1 j and the 
University of Paris quarrel, 250. 

Alfred, King, the Great, com- 
plains of monks, 1735 his re- 
formatory measures, 181. 

Alien Priories, confiscated, 338; 
origin of, 340. 

Allen, on the fate of the Temp- 
lars, 202 j on Dominic and the 
Albigensian crusade, 2385 on 
spiritual pride of the Mendicants, 
257 J on the genius of feudal- 
ism, 373 ; on the deficiencies 
of monastic characters, 394. 

Almsgiving, see Charity. 

Alverno, Mount, and the stigmata 
of St. Francis, 219. 

Ambrose, embraces ascetic Christ- 
ianity, 84 } Theodosius on, 115; 
saying of Gibbon applied to, 
116; describes Capraria, 126 j 
his influence on Milanese wom- 
en, 126. 

Ammonius, the hermit, visits 
Rome, 72. 

Anglicans, claims of, respecting 
the early British Church, 162. 

Anglo-Saxons and British Chris- 
tianity, 164. 

Anglo-Saxon Church, effect of 
Danish invasion on, 1 8 1 j 



442 



INDEX 



ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH 

effect of Dimstan's work on, 
187. See Britain. 

Anslem, of Canterbury, on flight 
from the world, 369. 

Anthony, St., visits Paul of 
Thebes, 375 his strange experi- 
ences, 3 8 ; buries Paul, 41 ; birth 
and early life of, 43 ; his aus- 
terities, 44, 45 ; miracles of, 
46 J his fame and influence, 47 j 
his death, 48 ; Taylor on biog- 
raphy of, 48. 

Ap Rice, a Royal Commissioner, 

311- 

Aquinas, Thomas, a Dominican, 
242. 

Ascetic, The, his morbid intro- 
spection, 392 J meaning of word, 
425. See Monks and Hermits. 

Asceticism, in India, 18-20, 3575 
among Chaldeans, 20 j in China, 
20 J among the Greeks, 21, 22 j 
the Essenes, 23 ; in apostolic 
times, 27; the Gnostics, 275 
and the Bible, 30, 366 j in 
post -apostolic times, 3 1 ; modi- 
fications of, under Basil, 64 j 
protests against, in early Rome, 
124; various forms of, 385 j 
effects of, 391, 401. See Mo- 
nasticism. 

Aske, Robert, heads revolt against 
Henry VUI., 326. 

Athanasius, St. , visits hermits, 3 5 ; 
his life of Anthony, 42 $ influ- 
ence of same on Rome, 80, 
83; spreads Pachomian rule, 
63 ; visits Rome, 71, and effect 
of, 80 ; visits Gaul, 1 1 9 ; his say- 
ing on fasting, 121. 

Atonement, for sin, the monk's 



BASIL THE GREAT 

influence on doctrine of, 417. 

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, his 
life, and services to monasti- 
cism, 117, 119 J influenced by 
biography of Anthony, 43 j 
on marriage and celibacy, 1 1 2 j 
charges monks with fraud, 128. 

Augustine, Rule of, adopted by 
Dominic, 232, 241. 

Augustine, the monk, his mission 
to England, 161. 

Augustinians, 246. 

Aurelius, Emperor, Christianity 
during reign of, 124. 

Austerities, Robertson on, 94. 
See Asceticism and Self-denial 

Austin Canons, 118. 



B 



Bacon, Roger, a Franciscan, 228 j 

imprisonment of, 407. 
Bagot, Richard, on the English 

reformation, 345. 
Bale, John, on the fall of the 

monasteries, 333. 
Baluzii, on the prosperity of the 

Franciscans, 255. 
Bangor, Monastery of, founded, 

123 ; slaughter of its monks, 

165. 
Barbarians, the struggle of the 

monks with, 148, 149, 170 j 

conversion of, 398. 
Basil the Great, 63 ; revolts 

against excessive austerities, 

64 ; founder of Greek mo- 

nasticism, 64, 65 ; his rules, 

65 ; adopts irrevocable vows, 

65 ; on marriage, 66 ; enforces 

strict obedience, 66. 



INDEX 



443 



BEDE 

Bede,The Venerable, on the British 
Church, 123 ; on monks and 
animals, 156. 

Begging Friars, see Mendicants, 
Franciscans and Dominicans. 

Benedict, Pope, XI., 221 ; XII., 
consecrates Monte Cassino, 
135 ; on the stigmata of St. 
Francis, 221. 

Benedict of Aniane, his attempted 
reform, 176. 

Benedict, of Nursia, birth and 
early life, 1 3 i j his trials, 132; 
his fame attracts followers, 133; 
his strictness provokes opposi- 
tion, 133; retires to Monte Cas- 
sino, 134 ; conquers Paganism, 
1355 his miracles and power 
over barbarians, 1375 his last 
days, 1 3 8 ; his rules, 138; Schaff 
on same, 148 ; Cardinal New- 
man on mission of, 149 ; saying 
of, on manual labor, 403. 

Benedict, Order of St., 131; rules 
of, 138; the novitiate, 140; 
daily life of monks, 140 5 mean 
ing of term "order," 143; 
abbots of, 144; manual labor, 
147, 403 ; Schaff on rules of, 
148 ; its dealings with barba- 
rians, 148, 398 ; its literary and 
educational services, 151 j its 
agricultural work, 155, 404; 
spread of, 158 ; its followers 
among the royalty, 159. 

Bernard, of Clairvaux, his birth 
and monastic services, 193 ; 
character of his monastery, 
192 J on drugs and doctors, 
194 5 his reforms, 1955 Vaughan 
on, 195 5 Storrs on, 197 ; the 



BRUNO 

Crusades, 1975 on the abuses 
of charity, 411. 

Bernardone, Peter, father of Fran- 
cis, 208. See Francis. 

Bethlehem, Jerome's monasteries 
at, 85, 88 ; Paula establishes 
monasteries at, 100. 

Bible, The, and monasticism, 30, 
376. 

Bigotry, of monks, 394. 

Biography, monastic history cen- 
ters in, 84. 

Bjornstrom, on the stigmata, 223. 

Blassilla, murmurs against monks 
at her funeral, 125. 

Blunt, on the fall of the monas- 
teries, 333. 

Boccaccio, comments on his visit 
to Monte Cassino, 136. 

Boleyn, Anne, and Henry VIII., 

294- ^ 

Bollandists, Catholic, on Dominic 
and the Inquisition, 238. 

Bonaventura, on the stigmata of 
Francis, 220 5 a Franciscan, 228 ; 
on vices of the monks, 337. 

Boniface, the apostle to the Ger- 
mans, 167. 

Bonner, Bishop, persuades Prior 
Houghton to sign oath of 
supremacy, 303. 

Brahminism, asceticism under, 19. 

Britain, Tertullian, Origen, and 
Bede, on Christianity in, 1235 
relation of early church in, to 
Rome, 162 5 monasticism in, 
162, 168. 

Brotherhood of Penitence, 229. 

Bruno, the abbot of Cluny, 177. 

Bruno, founder of Carthusian order, 
188; Ruskin on the order, 1 8 9 j 



\ 



444 



INDEX 



BRUNO 

the monastery of the Chartreuse, 
189} his eulogy of solitude, 
396. 

Bryant, poem of, on fall of mon- 
asteries, 353. 

Buddha, on the ascetic life, 357. 

Buddhism, asceticism under, 19. 

Burke, Edmund, quoted by Gas- 
quet on fall of monasteries, 312. 

Burnet, on report of Royal Com- 
missioners, 316. 

Bury, Father, on Chinese monks. 



Cambridge, University of, the 
friars at, 252, 405. 

Campeggio, Cardinal, the divorce 
proceedingsof Henry VIII. and, 
294.^ 

Capraria, Rutilius and Ambrose 
on island of, 126. 

Capuchins, 246. 

Carlyle, Thomas, on Mahomet, 
33 ; quotes Jocelin on Abbot 
Samson's election, 145 j on the 
twelfth century, 1575 on the 
monastic ideal, 174 j on Jesuiti- 
cal obedience, 271 ; views of, 
criticised, 278. 

Carmelites, 246. 

Carthusians, The, establishment of, 
1885 famous monastery of, 189; 
rules of, 189 ; in England, 191, 
334. See Charterhouse. 

Cassiodorus, the literary labors of, 
152. 

Casuistry, of the Jesuits, 2725 
429. 

Catacombs, visited by Jerome, 87. 



CHARITY 

Catharine, of Aragon, Henry's 
divorce from, 293. 

Catholic, Roman, see Rome, 
Church of 

Celibacy, praised by Jerome and 
Augustine, 112} views of Hel- 
vidius on, opposed by Jerome, 
113; the struggle to establish 
sacerdotal, 1835 Lingard on, 
183; Lea on, 184; vow of, 
380; and Scripture teaching, 
381; early Fathers on, 3 8 1 j 
a modern ecclesiastic's reasons 
for, 381; how vow of, came to 
be imposed, 3825 no special 
virtue in, 419. 

Cellani, Peter, Dominic retires to 
house of, 238. 

Celtic Church, see Britain. 

Cenobites, meaning of term, 425 ; 
origin of, in the East, 5 7 ; habits 
of early, 58 5 aims of, 60. 

Chalcis, desert of, 87. 

Chaldea, asceticism in, 20. 

Chalippe, Father Candide, on 
miracles of saints, 224. 

Channey, Maurice, on fall of the 
Charterhouse, 302. 

Channing, William E., on vari- 
ous manifestations of the ascetic 
spirit, 385; on exaggerations of 
monasticism, 415. 

Chapter, The, defined, 144; of 
Mats, 228. 

Chapuys, despatches of, to Charles 
v., 297. 

Charity, of monks, 348, 410 j 
true and false, 348, 412 ; Ber- 
nard, Jacob of Vitry and Lecky 
on abuses of, 41 1 ; as a pass- 
port to Heaven, 411. 



INDEX 



445 



CHARLEMAGNE 

Charlemagne, ii8. 

Charles V., Emperor, Pole writes 
to, 296 J Chapuy's despatches 
to, 297. 

Charterhouse, of London, 191 } 
execution of monks of, 301, 
334; and the progress of Eng- 
land, 343. See Carthusians. 

Chartreuse, Grand, monastery, 
189. 

Chastity, vow of, in Pachomian 
rule, 61. See Celibacy. 

China, asceticism in, 20. 

Chinese monks, Father Bury on, 
20. 

Christ, see Jesus Christ. 

Christian clergy, character of, in 
the fourth century, 77. 

Christian ideal, tending toward 
fanaticism, 129. 

Christian discipleship, nature of 
true, 390. 

Christianity, asceticism and apos- 
tolic, 27, 28, 31 J conquers 
Roman empire, 71, 76 j endan- 
gered by success, 77 ; in Rome 
in the fourth century, 79; Lord 
on same, 80 ; is opposed to fa- 
naticism, 94 j in ancient Britain, 
123, 161, 162 ; Clarkeon, 171 ; 
Mozoomdar on essential prin- 
ciple of, 359; requires some 
sort of self-denial, 390, 418, 
419 J monasticism and, com- 
pared, 420} monasticism fur- 
nishes example of, 422. See 
Britain and Church. 

Chrysostom, becomes an ascetic, 
84 J brief account of life of, 
116; monastic cause furthered 
by, 117. 



COMMISSIONERS 

Church, Christian, the triumphant, 
compared with church in age of 
persecution, 109 J ideal of, fur- 
thers monasticism, 1295 and 
the barbarians, 1495 of the 
thirteenth century, 206 j its 
life-ideal, 369; its union with 
paganism, 370. See Anglo- 
Saxon Church, Britain, and 
England, Church of 

Cistercian Order, the monks and 
rule of, 192 ; decline of, 193. 

Citeaux, Monastery at, 192. 

Civic duties and monasticism, 399. 
See Monasticism. 

Clairvaux, Bernard oiySee Bernard j 
Monastery of, 193. 

Clara, St., Nuns of, founded, 228. 

Clarke, William Newton, on Chris- 
tianity of first and second cen- 
turies, 171. 

Clarke, James Freeman, on Brah- 
min ascetics, 20. 

Classics, Jerome's fondness for the, 
95 ; the monks and the, 405. 

Clement XIV., Pope, dissolves 
the Society of Jesus, 279. 

Clergy of the Christian Church, 77. 

Clinton, Lord, on the work of 
suppression, 311. 

Cloister, 426. See Monastery. 

Cluny, Monastery at, 177} the 
congregation of, 178. 

Coke, Sir Edward, quoted, 329. 

Columba, St., his church relations, 
162. 

Commissioners, The Royal, ap- 
pointed to visit monasteries of 
England, their methods, 308, 
333; character of, 311; begin 
their work, 313} their report, 



446 



INDEX 



COMMISSIONERS 

316 } Parliament acts on same, 

Confession, among the Jesuits, 269. 

Conscience, liberty of, renounced 
by monks, 394. 

Constantine the Great, 71. 

Contemplation, John Tauler on, 
395 ; Bruno on, 396. 

Convents. See Monasteries. 

Copyright, first instance of quarrel 
for, 170. 

Council, of Saragossa, 122 j of 
Trent, 382 j Lateran, 242. 

Court of Augmentation, 319, 

Crocella, Santa, chapel of, 131; 
Romanus the monk, 131. 

Cromwell, Richard, on Sir John 
Russell, 326. 

Cromwell, Thomas, his life and 
aims, 308 J Green and Froude 
on, 309 J his religious views, 
309 J Foxe and Gasquet on char- 
acter of, 310; becomes Vice- 
gerent, 310; inspires terror and 
hatred, 324; his removg.1 de- 
manded, 326 ; overcomes the 
Pilgrims of Grace, 326 ; bribed 
for estates, 329. 

Cross, loyalty to the, fostered by 
monks, 414; power of the 
doctrine of, 418. 

Crusades, effect of, on monastic 
types, 373. See Military Orders 
and Bernard. 

Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, 61 j 
and murder of Hypatia, 68. 



Damian, Church of St., repaired 
by Francis, 211, 214. 



DOMINICANS 

Danish invasion of England, Its 
consequences, 180. 

Dante, on Francis and poverty, 
215. 

Democracy, Christian, and monas- 
ticlsm, 422. 

Desert, Jerome on attractions of, 
89. 

De Tocqueville, on self-subjec- 
tion, 143. 

Dhaquit, the Chaldean, quoted, 

20. 
• Dharmapala, on the ascetic ideal 
in India, 357. 

Dill, Samuel, on Rome's fall and 
the Christian Church, 74, 79, 
108, 109. 

Domestic life, a field of forbidden 
fruit, 394, 398. See Family- 
ideal and Jerome. 

Dominic, St., Innocent III. dreams 
of, 216} early life of, 2 3 o ; his 
mother's dream, 231; visits 
Languedoc, 232 ; rebukes papal 
legates, 234 ; his crusade against 
Albigensians, 234; his relation 
to the Holy Inquisition, 235; 
establishes his order, 239; at 
Rome, 239 J his self-denial and 
death, 2405 canonized, 241. 

Dominic, St., Nuns of, 242. 

Dominicans, The, the Inquisition 
and, 238} order of, founded, 
239 ; constitution of the order 
of, 241 ; spread of, 241 j em- 
inent members, 242 j three 
classes of, 242 ; the preaching 
of, 249 ; quarrel with the Fran- 
ciscans, 249 ; enter England, 
251 ; fatal success and decline 
of, 253, 256; on the stigmata 



INDEX 



447 



DOMINICANS 

of Francis, 22 1} liberal educa- 
tion and, 408. 

Ducis, on the Hermits, 32. 

Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, 228. 

Dunstan, reforms of, 182J his 
character and life-work, 186. 



East, monasticism in the, see 
Monasticism and Monks. 

Echard, a Dominican, 242. 

Eckenstein, Lina, on Morton's 
letter, 339. 

Edersheim, on the Essenes, 24. 

Edgar, King, aids Dunstan in 
reform, i86. 

Education, The Mendicants and, 
248 } the monks further, in 
England, 253; the effect of 
monasticism on, 407. 

Edward I. and III., confiscate 
alien priories, 338. 

Egypt, The hermits of, 3 3 ; Kings- 
ley and Waddington on same, 

34- 

Elijah, and asceticism, 30. 

Elizabeth, Princess, and the Act 
of Succession, 298. 

Endowments of monasteries, abol- 
ished by first Mendicants, 244 ; 
reason for some, 361. 

England, Church of, separates from 
Rome, 3285 causes of, and by 
whom separation secured, 340, 
342. See Britain. 

Essenes, asceticism of, 23. 

Ethelwold, aids Dunstan, 186. 

Eudoxia, Empress, banishes Chrys- 
ostom, 117. 

Eustochium, see Paula. 



Fabiola, St., Lecky on her chari- 
ties, 105 J her care for sick, 
105 J her death, 105. 

Family-ideal, of monastery, Taun- 
ton on, 143. See Domestic Life. 

Fanaticism, Christianity hostile to, 
94} tendency toward, among 
early Christians, 129. 

Farrar, on the luxury of Rome, 75. 

Fasting, amusing instance of rebel- 
lion of monks against, 120 } 
Athanasius on, 121. See Self- 
denial, Ascetic and Asceticism. 

Ferdinand, of Austria, educated 
by Jesuits, 277. 

Feudalism, monasticism affected 
by, 373- 

Finnian, the monk, quarrels with 
Columba, 170. 

Fisher, G. P. , on the stigmata of 
Francis, 223. 

Fisher, execution of, by Henry 
VIII., 301, 306. 

Filial love, strangulation of, by 
monks, 397. 

Forsyth, on St. Francis, 225. 

Foxe, on Thomas Cromwell, 310. 

France, New, and the Jesuits, 282. 

Francis, St., his birth and early 
years, 208 } his dreams and sick- 
ness, 209} visits Rome, 210 } 
seeking light on his duty, 210, 
211} sells his father's mer- 
chandise and keeps proceeds, 
211} renounces his father, 212} 
assumes monkish habit, 213 } 
repairs Church of St. Damian, 
214} Dante on poverty and, 



448 



INDEX 



FRANCIS 

ai5 ; visits Innocent III., 216 ; 
visits Mohammedans, 217; a 
lover of birds, 217 j Long- 
fellow's poem on a homily of, 
218 J his temptations, 218 j the 
stigmata, 219} death of, 224} 
his character, 225 ; his rule, 
226 J on prayer and preaching, 
249 J method of, forsaken, 421. 

Franciscans, The, first year of, 
215 ; order of, sanctioned, 216, 
217; three classes of, 2265 
the rule of, 226; Sabatier on 
rule of, 227 ; the title "Friars 
Minor," 227 ; number of, 228 j 
St. Clara and, 228 j The Third 
Order of, 229 j quarrel over 
the vow of poverty, 246 } pros- 
perity of, 246 j educational work 
of, 248 ; quarrel with Domini- 
cans, 249 ; settle in England, 
2 5 1 } Baluzii on success of, 2 5 5 ; 
fatal success of, 253. 

Fratricelli, sketch of the, 247. 

Freedom, religious, want of, 402. 

Friars, Begging, see Franciscans, 
Dominicans and Mendicants. 

Friars Minor, 227. 

Froude, on the Charterhouse 
monks, 302, 304; on Thomas 
Cromwell, 309 5 on the report 
of the Royal Commissioners, 
317; on the Catholics and the 
Reformation, 346. 

Future punishment, the monks and 
the doctrine of, 417. 



Gairdner, on Henry's breach with 
Rome, 301 



GREEN 

Galea, the Goth, awed by St. 
Benedict, 137. 

Gardiner, burns heretics, 311. 

Gasquet, on Thomas Cromwell, 
310 J quotes Burke on the sup- 
pression, 312. 

Gauls, monastic, complain to St. 
Martin, 120. 

Germany, monasticism enters, 122. 

Gervais, reason for his donations, 
361. 

Gibbon, on bones of Simeon, 5 7 ; 
on Egyptian monks, 62 j on 
Roman marriages, no; saying 
of, applied to Ambrose, 116; 
on military orders, 199 ; quotes 
Zosimus, 348 J on the monastic 
aim, 362 ; on the character of 
the monks, 388. 

Gindeley, on the Jesuits and the 
Thirty Years' War, 277. 

Giovanni di San Paolo, on gospel 
perfection, 226. 

Glastonbury, fall of Abbey of, 

314- 

Gnostics, and asceticism, 27, 366. 

Godfrey de Bouillon, endows Hos- 
pital of St. John, 201. 

Godric, his unique austerities, 132. 

Goldsmith, on the English char- 
acter, 166. 

Grand Chartreuse, monastery, 189. 

Greece, asceticism in, 20. 

Greeks, ancient, asceticism among 
the, 21. 

Greek Church, monasticism of the, 
64, 67. 

Green, J. R., on the preaching 
friars, 254 ; on Thomas Crom- 
well, 309; on the suppression, 
3*3- 



INDEX 



449 



GREGORY OF NAZIANZA 

Gregory of Nazianza, on ascetic 

moderation, 6$. 
Gregory, Pope, I., 138; II., 

135 i VIL, 160, 178; IX., 

241 ; X., 245. 
Gregory, St., Monastery of, rules 

of, 141. 
Griffin, Henry, on the Royal Com- 
missioners, 311. 
Grimke,on historic movements,84. 
Guigo, rules of, 190 j on vosv of 

obedience, 383. 
Guizot, on state of early Europe, 

149 ; on the Benedictines, 404 ; 

on monastic education, 407. 
Gustavus, contrasted to monks, 

394- 
Guzman, see Dominic. 



H 



Hallam, on the Albigensians, 233, 
235; on the suppression, 334; 
on charity of the monks, 349. 

Happiness, the key to, 392. 

Hardwick, on the Albigensian 
doctrines, 233. 

Harnack, on early ascetics, 28 ; 
on nominal Christianity of 
Rome, 77 j on life-ideal in the 
early church, 129 ; on monasti- 
cism and the church, 414. 

Hell, the monks' teachings about, 

417.^ 

Helvidius, on celibacy, 113. 

Henry, King, II. , and the British 
church, 165 ; III., invites stu- 
dents to England, 2525 IV., 
confiscates alien priories, 338. 

Henry VIII,, and the independence 
of English church, 163 ; and 
29 



HILL 

the fall of the monasteries, 286 j 
opinions respecting his char- 
acter, 288, 290 ; inconsistencies 
of, 291 } "Defender of the 
Faith," 293; his divorce from 
Catharine, 293 j breach with 
Rome, 294, 300 ; dangers to 
his throne, 295 ; monks enraged 
at, 296 ; as <* Head of the 
Church," 297, 298 J Act of Suc- 
cession, 298 } Oath of Suprem- 
acy, 29 8, 301 ; excommunicated, 
306 ; the struggle for power, 
324 j suppresses '< Pilgrims of 
Grace," 326; his use of mo- 
nastic revenues, 328, 330 j 
Coke on his promises to Parlia- 
ment, 329 ; his motives for the 
suppression, 332 j Hooper on 
reforms of, 339; an uncon- 
scious agent of new forces, 344 ; 
two epochs met in reign of, 
346 J Lecky on his use of mo- 
nastic funds, 411. 

Heresy, growth of, in thirteenth 
century, 206 j monks attempt 
extirpation of, 261, 402 ; Jesuits 
and, 276, 409. 

Heretical sects, attack vices of 
monks, 245. 

Hermit life, founder of, 355 un-. 
suited to women, 107. 

Hermits, The, of India, 20 ; of 
Egypt, 33 ; their mode of life, 
49 ; visit Rome, 71 j effect of 
story of, in Rome, 71, 80, 845 
of Augustine, 246. 

Hilarion, the hermit, 49. 

Hildebrand, see Gregory VII. 

Hill, on manual labor, 142 ; on 
fall of monasticism, 345. 



450 



INDEX 



HISTORY 

History, monastic contributions to, 
406. 

Hoensbroech, Count Paul von, on 
Jesuitical discipline, 268. 

Holiness, false views of, 421. See 
Soul-purity and Salvation. 

Holy Land, motives for exodus 
to, 97. 

Holy Maid of Kent, 337. 

Home-life, not to be despised, 420. 

Honorius, HI., Pope, sanctions 
Franciscan Order, 217 j con- 
firms Dominican Order, 239. 

Hooper, Bishop, on Henry's re- 
forms, 339. 

Hospital, Knights of, see Knights. 

Hospitals, founded by Fabiola, 
105 J Lecky on, 105} result 
of woman's sympathy, iii. 

Houghton, Prior, see Charterhouse. 

Household duties, Jerome on, 114. 
See Domestic Life. 

House of Lords, majority in the, 
changed, 347. 

Houses, Religious, see Monas- 
teries. 

Hugh, St., of Lincoln, and the 
swan, 157} Ruskin on, 189. 

Human affection, monks indiffer- 
ent to, 394, 397. 

Hume, on the suppression, 333. 

Hypatia, Kingsley's, quoted, 61 j 
death of, 68. 



Ideal, monastic, 354. See Mo- 
nastlcism. 

Ignatius, St., see Loyola. 

Independence, Jesuitism and per- 
sonal, 270 ; of thought, re- 



h 18, 357. Il 

1 in, 18, 357, I 



JEROME 

nounced by monks, 394. See 
Freedom, Liberty. 

India, asceticism in, 

India, monasticism 

358 J causes of same, 355. 

Individual, influence of the, 91; 
effect of self-sacrifice upon the, 
390} effect of solitude upon 
the, 393. 

Industry, modern, not to be des- 
pised, 420. 

Innocent, Pope, III., 216, 234, 
239, 242; IV., 250 J VIII., 339. 

Inquisition, The Holy, the Albi- 
gensian crusade and, 233 ; rela- 
tion of Dominicans toward, 235; 
its establishment and manage- 
ment, 238. 

Intellectual progress, monasticism 
opposed to true, 407 ; in Eu- 
rope, 409. 

Introspection, evil effects of mor- 
bid, 392. 

lona. Monastery of, 168. 

Ireland, St. Patrick labors in, 123 ; 
monasteries of, as centers of 
culture, 169. 

Isidore, the hermit, visits Rome, 72. 

Itineracy, substituted for seclu- 
sion in cloister, 244. 



J 



Jacob of Vitry, on abuses of chari- 
ty, 4H. 

James, the Apostle, quoted on 
rich men, 377. 

Jerome, St., his life of Paul of 
Thebes, 35; on Pachomian 
monks, 595 his letter to Rus- 
tlcus, 59 ; on solitude, 61 ; on 



INDEX 



451 



JEROME 

number of Egyptian monks, 
63 ; on clergy of the fourth and 
fifth centuries, 77; in his cell, 
85 J Schaff on, S6 ^ his birth 
and early life, 86 ; his travels, 
and austerities, 87, 92; or- 
ganizes monastic brotherhood, 
88; his literary labors, 8 8 ; 
glorifies desert life, 89 j in- 
fluences Rome, 91; his tempta- 
tions, 93 ; his fondness for the 
classics, 95 J his biographies of 
Roman nuns, 96 j his life of 
St. Paula, 97, and of Marcella, 
102 ; on folly of Roman women, 
108; on marriage and celibacy, 
112; on household duties, 113; 
attacks the foes of monks, 127 ; 
on vices of monks, 128 ; on 
monastic aim, 360 j on the 
natural, 366. 

Jesuits, see Jesus, The Society of. 

Jesuits, The Pagan, 22, 426. 

Jesus Christ, the Essenes and, 26 ; 
quoted by early ascetics, 31, 
and by Jerome, 92; teachings 
of, used by monks, 366, 376; 
his doctrine of wealth, 377 j 
his attitude toward rich men, 
379 ; the doctrine of the cross 
and, 418. 

Jesus, The Society of, Sherman on 
nature of, 258 j rejects seclu- 
sion, 258; Bishop Keane on, 
*59» 273 j ^ovr differs from 
other monastic communities, 
259 ; founded by Loyola, 264 
constitution and polity of, 265 
grades of members of, 265 
vow of obedience in, 266 ; von 
Hoensbroech on, 268 j con- 



JUVENAL 

fession in, 269 ; Carlyle on 
obedience in, 271 J casuistry of, 
272, 429 J its doctrine of prob- 
abilism, 274 j the Roman 
Church and, 275 ; Roman foes 
of, 276 j mission of, 276 j its at- 
titude toward Reformation, 277; 
the Thirty Years' War and, 2 7 7 ; 
calumnies against, 279; Clem- 
ent XIV. dissolves, 279 j ex- 
pulsion of, from Europe, 279 j 
missionary labors of, 280 j Park- 
man contrasts, with Puritans, 
281 j failure of, 283 ; restora- 
tion of, 283; causes for rise of, 
3 74 ; hostility of, to free govern- 
ment, 402 J liberal education 
opposed by, 409. See Loyola. 

Jewish asceticism, 23. 

Jocelin, quoted by Carlyle, 145. 

John, King, confiscates alien 
priories, 338. 

John, St. , Knights of, see Knights. 

John, St., of Calama, visits his 
sister in disguise, 397. 

John, the Apostle, on love of the 
world, 377. 

John the Baptist, and asceticism, 
30. 

Johnson, on Monastery of lona, 
168. 

Joseph, St. , Church of, in England, 
163. 

Josephus on the Essenes, 23. 

Jovinian, hostility of, toward 
monks, 127 j compared by 
Neander to Luther, 127. 

Julian, Emperor, the exodus of 
monks and the, 127. 

Juvenal, satire of, on Roman 
women, 82. 



452 



INDEX 



KEANE 



K 



Keane, Bishop, on the Jesuits, 

^S9y 273; 

Kennaquhair, installation of abbot 
of, 145. 

King, on Hildebrand, 178. 

Kingsley, on Egypt and the her- 
mits, 34 ; on Roman women, 
82, 106 j on fall of Rome, 78, 

367- 
Knights of St. John, their origin 

and mission, 200. 
Knights of the Hospital, sketch 

of the, 198. 
Knights Templars, rule of the, 

197 ; rise and fall of, 202. 



Labor, manual, Jerome on, 59; 
in Pachomian rule, 60 j Hill on 
benefits of, 142 j among the 
Benedictines, 147, 404; Bene- 
dict on, 403 ; effect of Mendi- 
cants 011,4045 not to be des- 
pised, 420. 

Lama, Grand, in India, 21. 

Lateran Council, 242. 

Latimer, Bishop, and the monastic 
funds, 323. 

Laumer, St., and wild animals, 
156. 

Laveleye on Christianity, 378. 

Lay abbots, disorders among the, 
179. 

Layton, a Royal Commissioner, 

3ii» 312- 
Lea, on celibacy, 1845 on the 
Reformation, 342. 



LOYOLA 

Learning, influence of Alcuin 
and Wilfred on, 167; Irish 
monasteries as centers of, 169; 
monks further, in England, 
252 J the monks and secular, 
406 ; effects of raonasticism on 
the course of, 407. See Literary 
services. 

Lecky, on Fabiola*s hospitals, 1 05 ; 
on asceticism and civilization, 
401 J on industry and the mo- 
nastic ideal, 405 j on abuses of 
almsgiving, 411; on the mo- 
nastic doctrines of hell, 41 8. 

Legh, a Royal Commissioner, 311. 

Leo X., Pope, 293. 

Liberty, the Jesuits on, 375. See 
Freedom and Independence. 

Libraries, monastic, 152. 

Lincoln, Abraham, quoted, 205. 

Lingard, on Bede and the con- 
version of King Lucius, 1245 
on the Anglo-Saxon Church, 
181. 

Literary services of monks, 153, 
406. Ste Learning. 

Lollardism, way paved for de- 
struction of cloisters by, 294. 
Sge 429. 

Lombards destroy Monte Cassino, 

135- 

London, John, a Royal Commis- 
sioner, 311. 

Longfellow, poem of, on Francis, 
218 } on Monte Cassino, 135. 

Lord, John, on needed religious 
reforms, 80. 

Loyola, St. Ignatius, his birth, 
261; enters upon religious work, 
262 ; his pilgrimage to the Holy 
Land, 263 } his education, 263 ; , 



INDEX 



453 



LOYOLA 

imprisonments, 263 j founds So- 
ciety of Jesus, 264 ; his "Spirit- 
ual Exercises," 265, 2675 on 
obedience, 267 j his mission, 
276 ; Sherman on, 278 j com- 
pared with Hamilcar, 409. See 
Society of Jesus. 

Lucius, a British king, embraces 
Christianity, 124. 

Luther, influence of, in history, 92 j 
an Augustinian monk, 118; 
Henry VIIL attacks, 293. 

Lytton, his views of Jesuits de- 
nounced, 278. 



M 



Macarius, the hermit, 49. 

Macaulay, his views of Jesuits 
opposed, 278 } on the aims of 
Jesuits, 283 } on the Roman 
Church, 402. 

Mabie, H. W., on the monks 
and the classics, 408. 

Mahomet, Carlyle on, 33. 

Maitland, on Benedictine monas- 
teries, 155. 

Maitre, on desecration of cloisters, 

350. 

Malmesbury, his charges against 
the monks, 173. 

Manichcism, relation of, to Albi- 
gensians, 233. 

Marcella, St., Jerome on life of, 
102 ; her austerities and charity, 
103. 

Maria dei Angeli, Sta., Francis 
hears call in church of, 214. 

Marriage, Basil on, 66 j how 
esteemed in Rome, no; Gib- 
bon on, in Rome, 1 1 o j Jer- 



MILMAN 

ome and Augustine on, H2 j 
vow of celibacy and, 381. 

Married life in Rome, Jerome on, 
114. 

Martensen, on ascetics, 391 j on 
solitude and society, 395. 

Martin, St., of Tours, credibility 
of biography of, 119; sketch 
of his life, 120 ; his death, 122 j 
churches and shrines in honor 
of, 122. 

Martinmas, 122. 

Materialism, monasticism and, 350, 
413 } of the West, 371. 

Mathews, Shailer, on Christ and 
riches, 379. 

Matthew of Paris, on prosperity 
of friars, 246. 

Maur, St., walks on water, 137. 

Maximilian, of Bavaria, educated 
by Jesuits, 277. 

Melrose Abbey, 289. 

Mendicant Friars, The, 205 j suc- 
cess of, 242, 255 J their value 
to Rome, 243 j confined to four 
societies, 246 j quarrels among, 
246 ; their educational work, 
248 J in England, 251 ; decline 
of, 253 } as preachers, 244; 
254 J effects of prosperity on, 
256. 

Mendicity of monks, 245. 

Milan, church of. Emperor refused 
entrance to the, 115. 

Military-religious orders, their ori- 
gin, labors and decline, 197. 

Militia of Jesus Christ, 242. 

Mill, John Stuart, on preaching 
friars, 244. 

Milman, on the early church lead- 
ers, 129 J on dream of Dom- 



454 



INDEX 



MILMAN 

inic's mother, 231 ; on bigotry 
of monks, 395 j on monks and 
natural affections, 398. 

Milton, contrasted to monks, 394. 

Miracles, 224. See Anthony, 
Stylites, St. Martin, etc. 

Missionary labors, of monks, 148, 
>7i> 398 j of the Jesuits, 280, 
281. 

Modern life and thought, monas- 
ticism rejected by, 421. 

Mohammedans, mission of Fran- 
cis to, 217. 

Monastery, of Pachomius, 58 ; 
Monte Cassino, 134 j St. Greg- 
ory's, rules of, 141 ; Kennaqu- 
hair, 145$ Vivaria, 152 j Ban- 
gor, 165 5 lona, 168 } Cluny, 
177; Grand Chartreuse, 1895 
Charterhouse, 191, 301, 334, 
343 ; Citeaux, 192 } Clairvaux, 
193 j St. Nicholas, 240 ; Mel- 
rose, 289 ; Glastonbury, 314. 

Monasteries, in Egypt, 44 j of 
Jerome, 88; of Paula, 100; 
in early Britain, 123 ; as literary 
centers, 1 5 1 j decline of, in 
Middle Ages, 173; destruction 
of, by Danes, 180 j corruptions 
of, in Dunstan's time, 185 ; 
abandonment of endowments, 
244 ; fall of, in England, 286 ; 
fall of, in various countries, 288, 
430 ; obstacles to progress, 343 ; 
new uses of, 350 j life in, 392 j 
charity of, 410. 

Monasteries, The Fall of, in Eng- 
land, 286 } various views of, 
288; necessity for dispassionate 
judgment, 289 ; events preced- 
ing, 293; progress and, 300 j 



MONASTICISM 
the Charterhouse, 302 ; the 
Royal Commissioners and their 
methods, 308, 313; Glaston- 
bury, 314; report of commis- 
sioners, 313, 314; action of 
Parliament, 319 ; the lesser 
houses, 319; the larger houses, 
320 ; total number and the 
revenues of, 321 j effect of, 
upon the people, 322 ; Green 
on same, 323 ; uprisings and 
rebellions, 325 ; use of funds, 
328 J justification for, 331 j 
Bale, Blunt and Hume on justi- 
fication for, 333 J Hallam on, 
334 J charges against monks 
true, 336 J Bonaventura and 
Wyclif on vices of monks, 
337 J confiscation of alien pri- 
ories, 338 } compared with 
suppression in other countries, 
339,430; alienation of England 
from Rome, 342 ; superficial 
explanation of, 343 ; true view 
of, 344; monks and reform, 

344 ; causes of, enumerated, 

345 ; results of, 345, 347 ; 
general review of, 352 ; Bryant 
on, 35 3- 

Monasticism, Eastern, origin of, 
17, 29 ; philosophy and, 18 ; 
Christian, 29 ; the Scriptures 
and, 30 ; in Egypt, 33 ; virtual 
founder of, 42 ; under Pachom- 
ius, 58, 63 ; under Basil, 63; 
character of, in Greek church, 
67 ; perplexing character of, 
69. See Jerome, Basil and 
Athanasius. 

Monasticism, Western, 71 ; intro- 
duction in Rome, 71 ; effect 



INDEX 



455 



MONASTICISM 

Upon Rome, 80 j women and, 
96, 106 } Gregory the Great 
and, 160 } in England, 162 ; 
spread of, 115} in Germany, 
122 ; in Spain, 122 ; in early 
Britain, 123, 168 j disorders 
and oppositions, 124; enemies 
of, 127} its eclipse, 1 3 o j code 
of, 139 } reforms of, and mili- 
tary types, 173, 197 J decline of, 
in the Middle Ages, 173, 179 ; 
Benedict of Aniane tries to 
reform, 176 j in England, in 
Middle Ages, 180 j failure of 
reforms, 196, 207 ; its moral 
dualism, 205 ; its recuperative 
power, 205 } in the thirteenth 
century, 206 j new features of, 
244 ; popes demand reforms in, 
286 J attacked by governments, 
287} Hill on fall of, in Eng- 
land, 345 } a fetter on progress, 
347 J almsgiving and, 348 ; age 
of, compared to modern times, 

Monasticism, Causes and Ideals 
of, 3 5 4 J causative motives, 3555 
the desire for salvation, 356 ; 
quotations on the ideal, 129, 
i73»^ 174, 357, 358, 360; 
nothing gained by return to 
ideal, 3525 motive for endow- 
ments, 361 J the love of soli- 
tude, 362; various motives, 
3 64 ; beliefs affecting the causa- 
tive motives, 365 j Gnostic 
teachings, 366 ; effect of the 
social condition of Roman Em- 
pire, 367 ; the flight from the 
world, 368 j causes of varia- 
tions in types, 371 ; East and 



MONKS 

West compared, 371; effect of 
political changes, 372 ; the Cru- 
sades, 3735 effect of feudalism, 
373 J effect of the intellectual 
awakening, 374; the Modern 
Age and the Jesuits, 3745 the 
fundamental vows, 375. 

Monasticism, Effects of, 386; the 
good and evil of, 3875 variety 
of opinions respecting, 3875 
the diversity of facts, 3895 
elements of truth and worth, 
390 ; effects of self-sacrifice, 
390, of solitude, 393 ; the 
monks as missionaries, 398 ; 
civic duties, 399 ; upon civili- 
zation, 401 J upon agriculture, 
403 ; upon secular learning, 
405 5 the charity of monks, 
410 J upon religion, 412, 413 j 
the sense of sin, 414} the atone- 
ment for sin, 417 ; the distinc- 
tion between the secular and the 
* religious, 418} monasticism and 
Christianity, 420 j old monastic 
methods forsaken, 421 j sum- 
mary of effects, 423. 

Monastic Orders, the usual history 
of, 174. See Benedict, Order 
of St., Franciscans, etc. 

Monks, not peculiar to Chris- 
tianity, 1 7 J Jerome on habits 
of, 3 6 } in Egypt, 44 5 Pachom- 
ian, 5 8 ; number of Eastern, 
63 ; under Basil, 63 ; char- 
acter of Eastern, 67, 69 ; as 
theological fighters, 68 j Hypatia 
and the, 68 ; in the desert of 
Chalcis, 87; in early Rome, 
96 ; motives of early, 106, 
1 2 8 } of Augustine, 118} under 



456 



INDEX 



MONKS 
Martin of Tours, lao ; opposi- 
tion to Roman, 125, 127 j dis- 
orders among the early, 128, 
150 J literary services of, 151, 
153, 167, 169, 248, 253, 405, 
406 } agricultural services of, 
155, 192, 403 j wild animals 
and the, 156; early British, 
162, 168 } influence of the, in 
England, 166 ; the barbarians 
and the, 148, 171, 398 j mili- 
tary, 173, 197 } corruptions of, 
124, 173, 175, 179, 196, 206, 
336; the celibacy of, 183; 
changes in the character of, 2 84 ; 
rebel against Henry VIII., 296 ; 
as obstacles to progress, 300, 
343 } required to take the Oath 
of Supremacy, 301 j pious frauds 
of, in England, 318; receive 
pensions, 320; oppose reforms 
in England, 344; privileges and 
powers of the, affected by the 
suppression, 347 j charity 6f 
the, 348, 410, 411 5 objects 
of the, 360 } once held in high 
esteem, 361 j their flight from 
Rome, 3685 diversity of opinions 
respecting the, 388 ; effect of 
austerities on the, 390 } effect of 
solitude on the, 393 ; deficien- 
cies in the best, 394} as mis- 
sionaries, 398 5 civic duties and 
the, 399 5 military quarrels in- 
cited by the, 401 ; enthusiasm 
for religion kept alive by the, 
413; their sense of sin, ex- 
aggeration in their views and 
methods, 413 5 their doctrine of 
hell, 417 ; the doctrine of the 
cross and the, 418. See Men- 



NORMANS 

dicants, Benedict, Order of St., 
etc. 

Montaigne, on the temptations of 
solitude, 393. 

Montalembert, on Eastern mon- 
achism, 67 } on Benedict, 130 j 
on the ruin of French cloisters, 
351; on the attractions of soli- 
tude, 364; on the value of the 
monks, 388, 406. 

Montanists, The, and asceticism, 
27. 

Monte Cassino, Monastery at, 
Montalembert on, 134; sketch 
of its history, 134. 

Montserrat, tablet on Ignatius in 
church at, 262. 

More, Sir Thomas, causes of his 
death, 2985 his character, 299 j 
influence of, in prison, 303, 
305 ; on Henry's ambition, 322. 

Morton, Cardinal, on the vices of 
the monks, 338. 

Mosheim, on Francis, 225 ; on 
the quarrel of the Franciscans, 
247. 

Mozoomdar, on the motives and 
spirit of Oriental asceticism, 
358. 

Mutius, taught renunciation, 62. 



N 



Neander, compares Jovinian to 

Luther, 127 ; on the *dreams 

of Francis, 209. 
Newman, Cardinal, on Benedict's 

mission, 149. 
Nicholas, St., Monastery of, 240. 
Normans, The, and the alien 

priories, 341. 



INDEX 



457 



NOVITIATE 

Novitiate, Benedictine, extended 
by Gregory, i6o j of the Jesuits, 
a 60, 269. See various orders. 

Nun, see Women. 

Nunneries, origin of, 106. 



Obedience, vow of, in Pachomian 
rule, 61 } enforced by Basil, 
66 J among the Jesuits, 266 j 
Loyola on, 267; Dom Guigo 
on, 383 J its value and its 
abuses, 384. 

Observantines, 246. 

Oliphant, Mrs. , on the temptations 
of Francis, 2 1 8 j on the stigmata, 
222. 

Origen, on Christianity in Britain, 
123. 

Oswald, aids Dunstan in reforms, 
186. 

Oxford University, friars enter, 
251 } founded by monks, 406. 



Pachomius, St., 32 j birth and early 

life of, 58. 
Pachotnian Monks, rules of, 58 ; 

vows, 61 J their number and 

spread, 63. 
Pagan philosophy powerless to 

save Rome, 76. 
Palgrave on the miter, 400. 
Pamplona, Ignatius wounded at 

siege of, 262. 
Parkman, Francis, on the Puritans 

and the Jesuits, 281 j on the Ro- 
man Church, 386. 
Parliament of Religions, World's 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 

Fair, views of asceticism at the, 

357, 35». 

Paris, University of, 249, 406. 

Paschal II., Pope, the gift of 
Cluny, 178. 

Patrick, St., 122 ; labors in Ire- 
land, 1 2 3 J was he a Romanist ? 
162. 

Paul, The Apostle, on asceticism, 
27. 

Paul III., Pope, excommunicates 
Henry VIII., 306. 

Paul of Thebes, Jerome's life of, 
35 J his early life, 36 } visited 
by Anthony, 3 7 j his death, 40 j 
effect of his biography on the 
times, 42. 

Paula, St., Jerome on death of, 
98, 10 1 J her austerities and 
charities, 98, 100 j separates 
from her children, 9 8 j her mon- 
asteries at Bethlehem, 100 j 
inscription on her tombstone, 
102 ; faints at her daughter's 
funeral, 125. 

Paulinus, embraces ascetic Chris- 
tianity, 84. 

Peter, The Apostle, marriage of, 
115. 

Peter the Venerable, 178. 

Petrarch, Mabie on, and the 
classics, 408. 

Peyto, Friar, denounces Henry 
VIII., 296. 

Philanthropy, spirit of, kept alive 
by monks, 412. See Charity. 

Philip IV., King, of France, his 
charges against the ICnights, 
202. 

Philippine Islands, monasticism 
in, 431. 



458 



INDEX 



PHILO 

Philo, on the Essenes, 23 j on 
the Therapeutae, 27. 

Philosophy, ascetic influence of 
Greek, 21 ; Gnostic, 27 j 
Pagan, and fall of Rome, 76. 

Pike, Luke Owen, on the char- 
acter of Henry VIII., 290 ; on 
the lawlessness of monks, 336. 

Pilgrims of Grace, 326 ; their 
demands and overthrowal, 327. 

Pillar Saints, 51. 

Plague, Black, and the monks, 
410. 

Plato, ascetic teachings of, 22. 

Pliny, on the Essenes, 25. 

Pole, Reginald, on Henry VIII. 
and Rome, 295. 

Politics, not to be despised, 420. 

Portus, inn at, 105. 

Potitianus, affected by Anthony's 
biography, 83. 

Poverty, vow of, in Pachomian 
rule, 61 ; Franciscans quarrel 
over, 246 } and the Scriptures, 
376. 

Preaching Friars, see Dominicans, 
Franciscans and Mendicants. 

Pride, spiritual, of monks, 395. 

Probabilism, doctrine of, 274. 

Protestantism, effect of, upon mo- 
nasticism, 286 ; guilty of per- 
secution, 332 J and the Church 
of England, 340 ; its real value 
to England, 346 $ its religious 
ideal, 356. 

Putnam, on the rule of St. Bene- 
dict, 139 i on Cassiodorus, 153 j 
on the first quarrel over copy- 
right, 170. 

Pythagoras, asceticism of, 21. 
426. 



RICHARD II 



Reade, Charles, on the monk's 
flight from the world, 368. 

Reading, the monks of, their 
pious frauds, 318. 

Recluses, see Hermits. 

Reformed Orders, 173. 

Reform, monastic, 173, 205 j 
fails to stop decline of monas- 
teries, 196, 207, 286 } demand- 
ed by popes, 286 ; failure of, 
336. See Monasticism. 

Reformation, The Protestant, fur- 
thered by certain Franciscans, 

247 J relation of Mendicants to, 

248 } the Jesuits and, 277 ; 
278, 283 ; in England, its 
character, and results, 345,346 j 
and the monastic life, 374. 

Relics, fraudulent, 128, 318. 

Religion, monasticism and, 18, 
412 j influence of feelings and 
opinions, 354 ; enthusiasm for, 
fostered by monks, 413 } the 
sense of sin, 414 ; salvation, 
417 j the distinction between 
the secular and the religious, 
418, 420 j the doctrine of the 
cross, 418 j «ssence of, 419 ; 
true, possible outside of con- 
vents, 421. 

Religious houses, see Monasteries. 

Renunciation of the world, 358, 
369. See Self-denial. 

Rice, Ap, a Royal Commissioner, 
311. 

Riches, see Wealth, 

Richard II., confiscates alien 
priories, 338. 



INDEX 



459 



ROBERTSON 

Robertson, F. W., on excessive 
austerities, 94. 

Rome, Church of, her claims 
respecting the early British 
Church, 162 ; writers of, on 
the stigmata, 223 j her relation 
to the Jesuits, 275, and the 
English people, 294, 341 ; 
martyrs of, 3325 writers of, on 
the fall of monasteries, 334, 
335 } England separates from, 
342 } her religious ideal, 356 ; 
Parkman on, 386} Macaulay 
on, 403. See Henry VIII. 

Rome, Monasticism introduced in, 
71 J social and religious state 
of, in the fourth century, 72, 

74 } Dill on causes of the 
fall of, 74 J classes of society 
in, 75 } Farrar on luxury of, 

75 > epigram of Silvianus, 76 ; 
Kingsley on ruin of, 78 ; Jer- 
ome on sack of, by Alaric, 103. 
See Jerome. 

Roman Empire, nominally Chris- 
tian, 73 ; its impending doom, 

73, 367- 

Romanus, a monk, 131. 

Royalty, affected by monasticism, 
179. 

Rules, monastic, the first, 58 j 
before Benedict,! 07 j of Augus- 
tine, 118 ; of St. Benedict, 
138, 139, 147, i5i> 158 ; of 
Dom Guigo, 189 ; of St. Fran- 
cis, 226. See Celibacy, Pov- 
erty, Obedience. 

Ruskin, on St. Hugh of Lincoln, 
189. 

Rusticus, a monk, 59. 

Rutilius, on the monks, 126. 



SCHAFF 



Sabatier, on rule of St. Francis, 
227. 

Saint, Paul of Thebes, 35 j Antho- 
ny, 3 7 J Athanasius, 42 j Abra- 
ham, 50, 60 J Macarius, 49 j 
Hilarion, 49 j Simeon Stylites, 
51 } Pachomius, 58 j Basil, 
63 } Gregory of Nazianza, 65 ; 
Jerome, 85 ; Paula, 97 j Mar- 
cella, 102 ; Fabiola, 105 j Am- 
brose, 1 1 5 J Chrysostom, 116; 
Augustine, 117; Martin of 
Tours, 1 1 9 J Maur, 137; Pat- 
rick, 123, 162; Benedict of 
Nursia, 1 3 1 j Hugh of Lincoln, 
157, 189 J Gregory the Great, 
159; Columba, 162, i68, 170 J 
Boniface, 167 5 Wilfred, 167 ; 
Benedict of Aniane, 176 j 
Dunstan, 182 j Bruno, 188 j 
Bernard, 192 ; Francis, 208 j 
Clara, 228 j Dominic, 230 j 
Loyola, 261. 

Salvation, the desire for, 70, iii, 
355, 396} the struggle for, 
95 ; monastic views of, 417. 

Samson, Abbot, election of, 145. 

Santa Crocella, chapel of, 131. 

Saracens burn Monte Cassino 
monastery, 135. 

Saragossa, Council of, forbids 
priests to assume monks' robes, 
122. 

Savonarola, a Dominican, 242. 

Saxons invade England, 180. 

Schaff, Philip, on origin of mo- 
nasticism, i8 ; on Montanists, 
28 J on the biography of the 



460 



INDEX 



SCHAFF 

hermit Paul, 35 j on St. Jer- 
ome, 86 ; on Augustine, 117 5 
on Benedictine rule, 148 j on 
monasteries as centers of learn- 
ing* 153 > on effects of monas- 
ticism, 387. 

Scholastica, story about, 138. 

Schools, monastic, 154, 167. See 
Learning. 

Scott, Walter, on installation of 
an abbot, 145 ; on the cru- 
saders, 199. 

Seclusion, 244, 259. See Soli- 
tude. 

Secular life, duties of, 113; the 
monks and, 399 j distinction 
between religion and the, 418 ; 
true view of, 420. 

Self-crucifixion, 418. 

Self-denial, its nature, 356 ; Mo- 
zoomdar on, 358. 

Selfishness, engendered by monas- 
ticism, 396. 

Self-forgetfulness, the key to hap- 
piness, 392. 

Self-mastery, the craving for, 70. 

Self-sacrifice, effect of, upon the 
individual, 390 j meaning of 
true, 419. See Asceticism. 

Serapion, monks of, 63. 

Severus, his life of St. Martin, 
119. 

Sherman, Father Thomas E., on 
the Society of Jesus, 258 j on 
Loyola, 278. 

Sick, ministered to by women, 350. 
See Charity. 

Silvianus, epigram of, on dying 
Rome, 76. 

Simon de Montfort, 237. 

Simeon Stylltes, birth and early 



SUPREMACY 
life of, 51 j austerities of, 52 ; 
his fame, 52 5 lives on a pillar, 
53 J Tennyson on, 54; death 
of, 56 ; refuses to see his 
mother, 397; method of, for- 
saken, 421. 
Sin, monastic confessions of, 413 j 
consciousness of, preserved by 
monks, 414 5 exaggerated views 
of, 415 } false methods to get 
rid of, 416 } monastic influence 
on doctrine of atonement for, 

^ 417- 

Sisterhoods, see Women. 

Sixtus IV. and V., Popes, on the 
stigmata, 221. 

Social service, spirit of, 419, 423. 

Solitude, of Egypt, 33 ; provided 
for in Pachomian rules, 60 ; 
Jerome on, 61 ; the love of, as 
a cause of monasticism, 362, 
363 J effects of, upon the in- 
dividual, 393 ; Montaigne on 
temptations of, 393 5 society 
and, 395. 

Soul-purity, struggles for, 95. See 
Salvation. 

Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius, 
265. 

Spain, monasticism enters, 122. 

Starbuck, diaries C, on the 
casuistry of the Jesuits, 274. 

Stigmata, of St. Francis, 219. 

Storrs, on Bernard, 197. 

Subiaco, desert of, 131. 

Superstitions, monastic, when re- 
volt against is justifiable, 423. 

Suppression of monasteries, see 
Monasteries, The Fall of. 

Supremacy, the monks required to 
take the oath of, 301. 



INDEX 



461 



TABENNA 



Tabenna, Monastery at, 32, 58. 

Tauler, John, a Dominican, 242 j 

on service and contemplation, 

395- 

Taunton, E. L., on the family-idea 
of monasteries, 1 43 ; on Augus- 
tine and British monks, 165. 

Taylor, Isaac, on the biography 
of Anthony, 48. 

Templars, see Knights. 

Tennyson, on Stylites, 54. 

Tertullian, on Christianity in 
Britain, 123. 

Thackeray, views of, on Jesuits 
opposed, 278. 

Theodoret, on Stylites, 51, 53. 

Theodosius, Abbot, 50. 

Theology, the monks and, 406 ; 
White on same, 416. 

Theophilus, joins Eudoxia against 
Chrysostom, 117. 

Therapeut£e, Philo on the, 27. 

ThiefFroy, on charity of monks, 
410. 

Third Order, see Franciscans and 
Dominicans. 

Thirty Years' War, the Jesuits 
and the, 277. 

Trench, on monastic history, 175 j 
on genius in creation, 207 j 
on the stigmata, 223. 

Trent, Council of, restricts Men- 
dicants, 246 ; on marriage, 382. 



U 



Universities, foundations of, laid 
by monks, 405. 



WHITING 

Urban II., Pope, the gift of 
Cluny monastery, 178. 



Valens, Emperor, fails to stop 
flight from Rome, 127. 

Vaughan, on Bernard's reforms, 
195 ; on the need of reforma- 
tion, 402. 

Virgins, see Marriage. 

Virgil, Jerome's fondness for, 9 5 j 
Mabie on reading of, 408. 

Vivaria, literary work in monas- 
tery at, 152. 

Voltaire, on the monks, 388. 

Vows, monastic, 61 ; irrevocable, 
66, 112; usual history of, 
1 74 J of the military orders, 
198 J the fundamental, 375; 
the passing away of, 423. See 
Poverty, Celibacy and Obedi- 
ence. 

Vulgate, Jerome, 85. 

W 

Waddington, on the hermits, 34 j 

on conscience and method of 

monks, 390. 
War, monks incite to, 401. 
Watch-dogs of the Church, a term 

applied to the Dominicans, 249. 
Wealth, Christ's doctrine of, 377 j 

not in itself an evil, 379 j its 

true value, 405 j compatible 

with Christianity, 420. 
White, on the theology of the 

monks, 416. 
Whiting, Richard, Abbot of 

Glastonbury, 315. 



462 



INDEX 



WIDOWS 

Widows, see Women and Mar- 
riage. 

Wilfred, St., his monastic labors, 
167. 

William of Aquitaine, 177. 

William of Amour, 250. 

William of Orange, 394. 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 294, 308. 

Women, welcome call of monks, 

81 ; Kingsley on same, 82 ; 
Juvenal on Roman women, 

82 ; Jerome's influence on, 86, 
96 J monasticism and, 106 j 
hermit life unsuited to, 107 j 
effect of corrupt society on, 
107, no J distinguished by 
mercy, in, 350 j compared 



ZOSIMUS 

with monks, in; married life 
of, in Rome, 112; influence of 
Ambrose upon, 116; regula- 
tion of Guigo concerning monks 
and, 190. 
Wyclif, attacks the friars, 253, 
337 ; spirit of, affects monas- 
ticism, 295, 429. 



X 



Xlmenes, Cardinal, a Franciscan, 
228. 

Z 

Zoslmus, on charity of monks, 
348. 



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